POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES 


POPULAR    MISGOVERNMENT 
IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


BY 
ALFRED  B.  CRUIKSHANK 


1920 

MOFFAT,  YARD  &  COMPANY 
NEW  YORK 


COPYRIGHT,      IQ20,     BY 
MOFFAT,     YARD     &     COMPANY 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  I 

PAST    FAILURE    AND    FUTURE    DANGERS    OF    UNLIMITED    SUFFRAGE I  .    v 

CHAPTER  II 

THE    OLDEST    AND    THE    BEST    AMERICAN    TRADITIONS    FAVOR    A    RESTRICTED 

SUFFRAGE 28     ' 

»   CHAPTER  III 

THE  SUFFRAGE  IS  NOT  A  NATURAL  RIGHT  BUT  A  FUNCTION  OF  GOVERNMENT 
AND  MAY  THEREFORE  PROPERLY  BE  RESTRICTED  TO  THOSE  COMPETENT  TO 
EXERCISE  IT 40  " 

v    CHAPTER  IV 

THE  STATE  AS   THE  DEPUTY   OF  SOCIETY   POSSESSES     THE     JUST     POWER     OF 

ORDAINING    FRANCHISE    QUALIFICATIONS SO 

CHAPTER  V 

THE  CAPACITY  TO  CREATE  AND  PRESERVE  PRIVATE  PROPERTY  IS  THE  PROPER 
TEST  AND  PROOF  OF  QUALIFICATION  FOR  ACTIVE  CITIZENSHIP  IN  AN 
ADVANCED  DEMOCRACY 59 

CHAPTER  VI 

ORIGIN    AND    FIRST    APPEARANCE    OF    MANHOOD    SUFFRAGE    AS    PART    OF    THE 

FRENCH  TERRORIST  MACHINERY 78 

CHAPTER  VII 

IMPORTANT    INFLUENCE    OF    FRENCH    RED    RADICALISM    IN    PROPAGATING    THE 

MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  DOCTRINE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 83 

CHAPTER  VHI 

THE  SAFEGUARD  OF  A  PROPERTY  QUALIFICATION  FOR  VOTERS  WAS  DISCARDED 
BY  A  GENERATION  OF  AMERICANS  WHO  DID  NOT  REALIZE  ITS  VALUE  OR 
THE  DANGERS  ATTENDANT  UPON  UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE 88 

CHAPTER  IX 

FIRST  EFFECTS  AND  SUBSEQUENT  RESULTS  OF  MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE;  SPOILS 
SYSTEM;  TRAFFIC  IN  VOTES;  ORGANIZED  CORRUPTION;  THE  BOSS;  THE 

MACHINE;  RULE  OF  POLITICAL  OLIGARCHY 109 

v 


428:170 


vi  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  X 

SHORT  SKETCHES  OF  MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  PROGENY/  THE  POLITICIAN  AND 
THE  BOSS;  THEIR  CREATIONS,  THE  RING  AND  THE  MACHINE;  AND 
THEIR  BY-PRODUCT,  THE  LOBBY 135 

CHAPTER  XI 

V    THE   EFFECT    OF    MANHOOD    SUFFRAGE    IS   TO    FASTEN    ON    THE    COUNTRY    AND 

MAKE  PERMANENT  THE  RULE  OF  THE  POLITICIANS 158-- 

CHAPTER  XII 

V      INJURIOUS    EFFECT    OF    MANHOOD    SUFFRAGE    UPON    AMERICAN    LEGISLATIVE 

BODIES     1 74 

CHAPTER  XIII 

MANHOOD   SUFFRAGE   AS  APPLIED   TO   THE   GOVERNMENT   OF   AMERICAN  CITIES 

HAS  NOT  ONLY  BEEN  A  FAILURE  BUT  A  DISASTER  AND  A  SCANDAL IQO 

CHAPTER  XIV 

BRIEF  REFERENCE  TO  MANY  NOTED  DISCLOSURES  OF  GOVERNMENTAL  COR- 
RUPTION MOSTLY  IN  STATE  AND  FEDERAL  AFFAIRS  SINCE  THE  INSTITU- 
TION OF  MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 2l8 

CHAPTER  XV 

3,  THE  FOUR  YEARS  CIVIL  WAR  TN  THE  UNITED  STATES  IS  DIRECTLY  CHARGEABLE 

TO  MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE 244 

CHAPTER  XVI 

FAILURE   AND   CONDEMNATION   OF   MANHOOD   SUFFRAGE   AFTER   A   TEN   YEARS* 

EXPERIMENT  IN  THE   SOUTHERN   STATES 253 

CHAPTER  XVII 

-     THE    EFFECT    OF    MANHOOD    SUFFRAGE    IS    TO    ENSURE    INEFFICIENCY    IN    DO- 
MESTIC   LEGISLATION    AND    ADMINISTRATION 267 

CHAPTER   XVIII 

VV    WEAKNESS    AND    INEFFICIENCY    OF    OUR    MANHOOD    SUFFRAGE    GOVERNMENT 

IN  ITS  FOREIGN   RELATIONS 293 

CHAPTER  XIX 

ROTATION  IN  OFFICE/  A  MISCHIEVOUS  BY-PRODUCT  OF  THE  MANHOOD  SUF- 
FRAGE DOCTRINE  AND  ANOTHER  FACTOR  IN  POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT 
AND  HEREIN  OF  CIRCUMLOCUTION  OFFICE  REFORM 305 

CHAPTER  XX 

THE  EFFECT  OT  THE  OPERATION  OF  MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  HAS  BEEN  TO  GIVE 
A  LOWER  TONE  TO  AMERICAN  PUBLIC  LIFE 


CONTENTS  VU 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  XXI 

GENERAL  PRIVATE  AND  PUBLIC  CONDEMNATION  BY  THE  INTELLIGENT  CLASSES 

OF  MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  POLITICS  AND  GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  UNITED 
STATES;  AND  HEREIN  OF  WATCH  DOGS  AND  YELLOW  DOGS 320 

CHAPTER  XXII 

THE  ELECTORATE  FUNCTIONS  NOT  BY  ITS  INDIVIDUALS  BUT  BY  GROUPS 
WHEREBY  THE  ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  THE  SHIFTLESS  AND  IGNORANT 
GROUP  NECESSARILY  TENDS  TO  CREATE  A  VICIOUS  POWER  IN  POLITICS .  .  334 

CHAPTER  XXIII 

ANSWER  TO  THE  PLEA  THAT  THE  BALLOT  SHOULD  BE  GRANTED  TO  THE  UN- 
PROPERTIED  CLASSES  AS  A  PROTECTIVE  WEAPON 341 

CHAPTER  XXIV 

ANSWER  TO  THE  PLEA  THAT  THE  PRIVILEGE  OF  SUFFRAGE  BE  GRANTED  TO 
ALL  AS  A  MEANS  OF  POLITICAL  EDUCATION/  AND  HEREIN  OF  SILK 
PURSES  MADE  FROM  SOW'S  EARS  AND  OF  AMATEUR  HARPING 347 

CHAPTER  XXV 

ANSWER  TO  SUGGESTION  THAT  UNLIMITED  SUFFRAGE  IS  A  PART  OF  AMERICAN 

LIBERTY     354 

CHAPTER  XXVI 

AN    UNQUALIFIED    NUMERICAL    MAJORITY    RULE    IS    NOT    IN    ACCORD     WITH 

GOOD     STATESMANSHIP 367 

CHAPTER   XXVII 

OF   EDUCATIONAL   AND    AGE   SUFFRAGE    QUALIFICATIONS    FOR   VOTERS 373 

CHAPTER  XXVIII 

WOMAN     SUFFRAGE     IN     THEORY 378 

CHAPTER   XXIX 

WOMAN    SUFFRAGE    IN    PRACTICE '. 408 

CHAPTER  XXX 

A  PROPERLY  QUALIFIED  ELECTORATE  WILL  REMOVE  THE  CAUSES  OF  THE 
PREVENT  POPULAR  DISSATISFACTION  AND  SERVE  AS  A  DEFENSE  AGAINST 
THE  PRESENT  MENACE  OF  BOLSHEVISM 421 

CHAPTER  XXXI 

THE  CASE  is  URGENT;  THERE  SHOULD  BE  NO  DELAY  WHATEVER  IN  ESTAB- 
LISHING THIS  GOVERNMENT  UPON  A  PROPERTY  BASIS 434 

CHAPTER  XXXII 

CONCLUSION    439 

BRIEF   SKETCH   OF   WRITERS   REFERRED    TQ.  ,,....,..,,.,,,,,,,,.., ,  ,449 


POPULAR    MISGOVERNMENT    IN 
THE    UNITED    STATES 

CHAPTER   I 

PAST  FAILURE  AND  FUTURE  DANGERS  OF 
UNLIMITED  SUFFRAGE 

Let  us  raise  a  standard  to  which  the  wise  and  the  honest  can 
repair;  the  event  is  in  the  hand  of  God.  —  WASHINGTON 

GREAT  numbers  of  discerning  Americans  must  by  this  time 
have  been  brought  to  realize  that  something  practical  must 
shortly  be  done  in  this  country  by  the  believers  in 
private  property  and  private  property  rights  to  safeguard  the 
nation  from  its  threatened  invasion  by  Bolshevism,  Socialism 
and  other  various  forms  of  anti-individualism,  or  else  we  are 
in  for  a  hard  and  possibly  a  bloody  struggle  to  maintain  the 
very  fundamentals  of  our  social  and  political  systems.  From 
time  to  time  in  this  country  as  in  every  other  there  occur 
periods  of  extraordinary  danger  to  the  political  structure.  In 
the  past  we  have  had  several  such  episodes,  the  most  noted  be- 
ing that  of  the  secession  movement  culminating  in  1860  and 
1 86 1.  The  seriousness  of  the  present  menace  of  communism  in 
its  various  forms  is  due  not  so  much  to  the  strength  of  the  com- 
munist faction,  considerable  though  it  be,  as  to  the  weakness 
of  our  civic  structure  consequent  upon  the  long  continued  and 
increasing  general  distrust  and  suspicion  of  our  actual  political 
agencies  and  the  confirmed  popular  dissatisfaction  with  their 
operations.  Meantime,  nothing  adequately  effective  either  in 
the  way  of  strengthening  our  institutions  or  of  disarm- 
ing opposition  thereto  is  being  done  or  has  even  been  proposed. 
A  lot  of  vigorous  denunciation  has  been  directed  against  native 


,  MI^OpVERNllENT  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

and  foreign  Bolshevism,  all  thoroughly  deserved  and  'not  with- 
out effect  on  the  public  mind,  but  falling  far  short  of  positive 
acts  of  defense  or  protection.  Bolshevism  is  in  the  field  not 
merely  as  an  abstract  doctrine,  to  be  answered  with  words,  but 
as  an  active  and  aggressive  force  which  must  be  met  by  meas- 
ures of  active  resistance.  Such  measures  to  be  effective  must 
take  the  shape  of  the  creation  of  practical  means  and  methods 
of  offense  and  defense.  The  case  is  not  one  which  admits  of 
trifling;  the  attack  is  fundamental,  the  danger  is  vital,  and 
cannot  be  effectually  met  by  superficial  expedients. 

Now  there  is  happily  one  available  measure  of  protection 
and  defense  against  Bolshevism  and  all  its  assaults,  one  which 
is  manifestly  appropriate  and  will  be  absolutely  efficacious.  It 
is  one  which  has  long  been  highly  desirable  for  other  reasons 
hereinafter  set  forth,  but  which  in  view  of  the  menace  of 
radicalism  is  now  imperatively  demanded.  It  consists  in  such 
a  reform  of  the  electorate  itself  as  will  make  it  impassible 
and  impervious  to  every  influence  subversive  of  our  basic  in- 
stitutions. An  electorate  of  male  private  property  owners 
of  twenty-five  years  of  age  and  upwards  would  constitute  an 
absolute  barrier  against  all  attacks  on  private  property  from 
any  quarter;  its  establishment  would  summarily  and  forever 
terminate  all  hopes  of  Bolshevistic  revolution  in  this  country 
and  ensure  the  American  people  freedom  to  enjoy  the  noble 
future  which  Providence  has  made  possible  to  them. 

The  cause  of  private  property  rights  is  in  the  truest  sense 
the  American  cause  and  that  to  which  all  other  national  causes 
political  and  social  are  subordinate.  Those  rights  involve  al- 
most everything  which  is  dear  to  the  American  heart.  Even 
our  governmental  institutions  are  of  secondary  importance, 
they  are  the  instruments  merely;  the  means  whereby  we  seek 
to  obtain  among  other  aids  and  aims  the  protection  of  private 
property,  the  absolute  assurance  to  each  American  of  the  use 
and  enjoyment  of  the  fruits  of  his  toil,  of  his  self  denial  and 
of  his  foresight.  This  view  is  not  novel  in  our  politics.  It  was 
thoroughly  familiar  to  our  Eighteenth  Century  statesmen,  it 


FAILURE  AND  DANGERS  OF  UNLIMITED  SUFFRAGE  3 

was  part  of  the  political  faith  of  some  of  the  most  prominent 
among  them,  including  a  majority  of  the  political  leaders  of 
the  Revolutionary  epoch.  They  endeavored  to  secure  these 
ends  and  to  ensure  the  future  of  the  new  nation  by  requiring 
wherever  possible  a  property  qualification  for  voters.  Had 
this  practise  and  its  underlying  principle  been  adhered  to  and 
(with  proper  modifications  for  changed  conditions  as  they 
might  occur)  had  the  government  been  continued  on  the  basis 
on  which  the  wise  and  prudent  men  of  that  time  endeavored  to 
establish  it,  it  would  at  this  moment  represent  a  satisfactory 
approximation  of  a  true  and  scientific  democracy  able  to  hold 
in  safe  derision  its  critics  and  enemies.  But  the  principle  of 
a  properly  qualified  electorate,  so  vitally  essential  to  an  effi- 
cient democracy  has  been  repudiated  and  abandoned;  the 
practise  of  unlimited  white  suffrage  has  been  general  amongst 
us  for  about  ninety  years,  and  today  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  there  is  a  prospect  of  danger  to  our  country,  not  because 
of  lack  of  courage  and  loyalty  in  her  sons,  but  because  of  the 
unhealthy  organism  of  our  body  politic,  whose  modern  basic 
principle,  unlimited  suffrage,  ignores  property  rights,  and 
looks  to  control  by  the  representatives  of  the  inefficient  and 
the  proletariat  whenever  they  can  secure  a  numerical  majority 
at  the  polls,  thus  incidentally  accomplishing  what  Bolshevism 
directly  aims  at. 

And  now  that  private  property  rights  heretofore  considered 
as  unquestionable  are  openly  attacked,  we  must  prepare  for 
their  defense,  for  the  defense  of  the  family,  of  the  American 
social  system  and  the  free  individual  life,  all  three  of  which 
depend  on  private  property  for  their  existence.  The  time 
has  come  when  the  institution  of  private  property  must  be 
formally  recognized  and  defended  as  fundamental  to  our 
existence  as  a  nation,  and  such  recognition  requires  and  in- 
volves the  allotment  to  that  institution  of  a  place  and  influence 
in  our  electoral  system.  Private  property  cannot  safely  rely 
for  its  defense  upon  officials  who  are  dependent  upon  the  votes 
of  the  non-property  holding  populace.  There  is  no  way  of 


4          POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

final  avoidance  of  the  issue,  or  even  of  long  postponing  it. 
This  nation  must  either  declare  itself  definitely  as  adhering 
to  the  principle  of  private  property  rights  or  it  must  expect 
disaster.  And  first,  the  cause  of  private  property  rights  needs 
organization  and  self  consciousness.  Property  holders  can- 
not properly  defend  a  cause  which  has  never  declared 
itself  and  which  has  neither  standard  nor  leaders,  while 
its  enemies  have  both,  and  are  not  only  proclaiming 
their  convictions  with  courage,  but  have  enacted  them 
into  living  statutes  wherever  they  have  power.  If  the  institu- 
tion of  private  property  is  to  endure  in  this  country  it  must  be 
formally  recognized  as  representing  a  sacred  cause,  to  be  care- 
fully committed  into  the  hands  of  its  friends;  the  electorate 
must  be  made  over  into  a  property  qualified  body,  and  all 
temptation  to  Bolshevism  must  be  removed  from  the  American 
politician.  Let  this  be  done,  let  the  constitution  of  every 
State  be  amended  so  that  our  voting  mass  shall  be  virile  and 
substantial,  and  freed  from  the  element  of  effeminacy  and  in- 
efficiency now  so  controlling;  give  the  conservative  good  sense 
of  the  nation  a  rallying  point,  an  official  standard,  an  authorita- 
tive creed,  and  it  will  speedily  make  short  work  of  the  enemies 
of  social  order  and  of  sound  political  institutions. 

But  there  is  a  great  deal  more  to  be  said  in  favor  of  a 
property  qualification  for  voters  than  that  it  will  be  a  wall 
against  Bolshevism.  It  will  act  on  our  political  internal  sys- 
tem as  a  tonic  and  a  purifier.  It  sometimes  occurs  in  politics 
and  statesmanship  that  two  mischiefs  are  so  bound  together 
that  they  can  be  destroyed  at  one  blow.  Such  was  the  case  in 
1861-1865,  when  the  causes  of  the  perpetuation  of  the  Federal 
Union  and  the  emancipation  of  the  black  race  became  by  the 
logic  of  events  so  involved  as  to  be  practically  united,  and 
when  by  the  triumph  of  the  northern  armies  the  mischiefs  of 
chattel  slavery  and  disunion  politics  were  made  to  perish  to- 
gether. And  in  like  manner  we  now  find  not  only  that  unquali- 
fied or  manhood  suffrage  is  the  chief  source  of  our  weakness  in 
dealing  with  Bolshevism,  but  that  it  has  been  in  the  past  and 


FAILURE  AND  DANGERS   OF   UNLIMITED   SUFFRAGE  5 

still  is  the  principal  cause  of  our  political  corruption  and  gov- 
ernmental inefficiency.  And  therefore  it  has  come  about  that 
the  cause  of  private  property  and  property  rights  is  so  bound 
up  with  the  cause  of  administrative  purity  and  efficiency  in 
our  government  that  by  the  one  measure  of  the  establishment 
of  a  property  qualification  for  voters  the  perils  of  the  menace 
of  Bolshevism  and  the  mischiefs  of  political  corruption  and  in- 
efficiency may  be  dispatched  together. 

It  is  in  fact  principally  to  the  corruption  and  inefficiency  of 
manhood  suffrage  government  that  we  owe  the  popular  dis- 
satisfaction out  of  which  the  hopes  of  American  Bolshevism 
are  bred  and  nourished.  The  failure  of  democratic  institu- 
tions in  this  country  must  be  admitted  and  it  is  almost  entirely 
due  to  the  operation  of  manhood  suffrage.  We  have  aimed  at 
theoretical  perfection,  the  natural  conditions  have  been  most 
favorable;  we  have  loudly  called  the  world  to  witness  the  ex- 
periment, and  the  world  has  condemned  it  as  a  political  failure. 
This  statement  will  hardly  be  challenged,  but  it  is  well  sup- 
ported by  available  proof,  and  need  not  rest  merely  on  the 
assertion  or  opinion  of  the  writer.  And  right  here  the  reader 
may  as  well  be  informed  that  it  is  the  author's  intention  to 
support  his  material  assertions  with  such  evidence  as  the 
nature  of  the  subject  permits.  Such  readers  as  are  tolerably 
familiar  with  American  political  history  will  recognize  the 
truth  of  most  of  the  statements  of  fact  contained  in  these 
pages ;  but  the  reasonable  doubts  of  the  politically  uninstructed 
will  be  removed  as  far  as  conveniently  possible  by  reference  to 
records  and  to  the  testimony  of  reliable  witnesses.  Here  there- 
fore we  quote  on  this  branch  of  the  subject  from  an  address 
of  Henry  Jones  Ford,  President  of  The  American  Political 
Science  Association,  delivered  at  the  Annual  Meeting  at  Cleve- 
land, December  29,  1919. 

"There  was  at  one  period  an  enthusiastic  belief  that  in  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  reflection  and  choice  had  at  last  super- 
seded accident  and  force,  and  that  a  model  of  free  government  was 
now  provided  by  which  all  countries  and  peoples  might  benefit. 


6         POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES 

The  effect  upon  governmental  arrangements  was  once  very  marked, 
but  complete  examination  of  the  documents  shows  that  this  influ- 
ence soon  spent  itself,  and  a  decided  change  of  disposition  took 
place.  If,  for  instance,  one  shall  attentively  consider  the  constitu- 
tional documents  of  all  the  Americas,  one  will  observe,  that  although 
in  their  early  forms  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  the 
model,  this  is  no  longer  the  case.  The  Constitution  of  the  French 
republic  now  excels  it  in  influence.  The  United  States  has  lost  its 
lead,  despite  the  fact  that  never  has  our  country  bulked  larger  in 
the  world  than  now.  The  present  situation  is  indeed  a  striking  con- 
firmation of  Hamilton's  opinion  that  error  in  our  republic  becomes 
the  general  misfortune  of  mankind,  for  it  is  a  fact  well  known  to 
every  student  of  politics  that  a  belief  that  our  system  of  govern- 
ment is  a  failure  on  the  essential  point  of  justice  is  now  a  potent 
influence  on  the  side  of  social  revolution  throughout  the  world.  .  .  . 
Students  of  political  science  will  generally  agree  that  the  three 
greatest  works  of  this  class,  all  displaying  wide  knowledge  and  deep 
thought,  are  De  Tocqueville's  Democracy  in  America,  first  published 
in  1885;  Bryce's  American  Commonwealth,  1888;  and  Ostrogorski's 
Democracy  and  the  Organization  of  Political  Parties,  1902.  These 
works  form  a  crescendo  of  censure  upon  American  government,  each 
re-examination  of  the  subject  confirming  previous  disapproval  and 
adding  to  it." 

Needless  to  say  that  the  writers  referred  to  by  Ford  and 
others  hereinafter  referred  to  fully  sustain  his  statements  above 
quoted.  Our  government  has  not  only  been  a  failure  on  the 
essential  point  of  justice  as  President  Ford  points  out,  but 
a  still  greater  failure  on  the  equally  essential  points  of  purity 
and  efficiency.  The  democratic  system  in  actual  operation 
among  us  has  been  productive  of  corruption  and  mismanage- 
ment to  such  an  extent  as  to  cause  and  justify  the  almost  uni- 
versal verdict  that  popular  misgovernment  rather  than  popu- 
lar government  has  been  the  outcome.  Hence  general  dissatis- 
faction and  unrest;  hence  the  danger  of  revolutionary  move- 
ments, with  which  we  are  openly  threatened. 

It  is  often  said  that  governments  reflect  the  character  of  the 
people.  If  that  were  so  in  this  country,  as  our  people  are  con- 


FAILURE  AND  DANGERS  OF  UNLIMITED  SUFFRAGE  7 

ceded  to  be  one  of  the  most  intelligent  in  the  world,  we  would 
have  one  of  its  best  working  governments;  instead  of  which 
we  have  one  of  the  most  wasteful,  corrupt  and  inefficient.  Our 
inferiority  in  this  respect  has  been  universally  recognized  both 
in  this  country  and  abroad  for  the  last  fifty  years  or  more;  it 
is  a  common-place  of  conversation;  and  has  caused  number- 
less Americans  to  feel  rage  and  indignation  at  home  and  to 
suffer  shame  and  humiliation  abroad.  It  has  been  the  subject 
of  innumerable  books,  pamphlets,  sermons  and  lectures;  it  has 
inspired  denunciation,  satire  and  invective  in  pulpit,  and  on 
platform;  the  press  has  reeked  with  the  disgusting  details  of 
the  corruption,  ignorance  and  incompetence  of  our  office 
holders.  Everywhere  in  the  United  States  is  to  be  found  great 
popular  dissatisfaction  with  the  operations  of  our  government, 
profound  distrust  of  its  methods  and  spirit,  and  conviction  that 
there  has  been  a  failure  to  reach  the  standards  and  to  realize 
the  hopes  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Republic.  This  dissatisfac- 
tion and  distrust,  this  conviction  of  failure  is  not  confined  to 
any  class;  it  pervades  all  classes;  it  is  widespread;  it  is  to  be 
heard  freely  expressed  day  by  day  and  hour  by  hour  alike  in 
the  business  office  and  in  the  bar-room,  in  the  private  dwelling 
and  on  the  street;  by  the  mechanic,  banker,  tradesman,  laborer 
and  lawyer.  In  short  it  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that 
for  about  eighty  years  past  the  United  States  and  each  of  them 
has  been  in  many  important  respects  badly,  corruptly  and  in- 
efficiently governed.  Read  for  instance  this  statement  recently 
published  by  an  able  American  student  and  writer,  and  say 
whether  it  does  not  indicate  a  state  of  things  fruitful  with 
danger  to  the  Republic,  in  two  principal  ways;  one,  that  of 
its  decay  by  corruption,  the  other  by  furnishing  material  for 
scandal  and  propaganda  to  its  enemies. 

"The  present  situation  has  been  described  over  and  over  again. 
Briefly,  it  is  constant  encroachments  by  the  legislature  upon  the 
executive;  legislation  under  irresponsible  'bosses'  for  personal  ends, 
blackmailing  of  corporations  by  politicians,  and  of  society  by  cor- 
porations to  recoup  the  plunder  of  the  politician,  or  to  accumulate 


8          POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE  UNITED   STATES 

ill-gotten  gain,  both  of  them  very  good  imitations  of  the  Spanish 
policy  in  the  colonies  which  is  terminating  in  the  ruin  of  an  em- 
pire; favours  shown  to  special  forms  of  business  and  industry; 
unjust  taxation;  the  irresponsible  conduct  of  our  legislatures  whose 
deliberations  are  the  signal  for  alarm  and  confusion  in  the  com- 
mercial world;  and  mass-meetings  every  week  to  frighten  politicians 
into  submission,  libel,  bribery,  and  lying  in  campaign  work,  gov- 
ernment by  perjurers,  pugilists  and  pimps,  and  political  leadership 
by  men  who  know  no  arts  but  those  of  Alcibiades  and  Catiline  —  all 
these  and  a  hundred  other  facts  like  them  create  a  profound  and 
justifiable  suspicion  of  institutions  that  confer  the  supreme  power 
upon  those  who  are  equally  unfit  to  govern  themselves  and  others." 
Democracy,  Hyslop,  p.  294. 

Now,  let  us  more  carefully  examine  and  consider  the  essen- 
tial character  of  the  political  system  which  has  produced  these 
unsatisfactory  results.  Its  basis  is  unlimited  or  unqualified 
suffrage,  until  recently  appearing  and  manifested  as  "man- 
hood suffrage,"  but  now,  since  the  so-called  "enfranchisement" 
of  women  more  nearly  fitting  the  name  "universal  suffrage." 
In  any  case  in  theory  at  least  it  is  government  by  numbers,  in 
contradistinction  to  government  by  intelligence,  birth,  wealth, 
experience,  talent  or  by  any  combination  of  these  or  other  quali- 
ties or  achievements.  This  doctrine  of  unlimited  or  unqualified 
suffrage  is  now  and  has  long  been  recognized  as  an  established 
principle  of  government  in  this  country  by  most  of  us;  indeed 
we  may  say  by  all  Americans  with  the  exception  of  the  natives 
or  inhabitants  of  the  Southern  or  former  slave  States.  By 
these  latter  pure  manhood  suffrage  has  been  tried  and  con- 
demned and  has  been  replaced  by  white  manhood  suffrage 
by  means  of  certain  well  known  and  successful  political  de- 
vices amounting  practically  to  a  strict  race  qualification; 
though  the  important  and  suggestive  fact  that  thereby  the 
basic  principle  of  manhood  suffrage  was  expressly  repudiated 
by  the  entire  South  has  been  carefully  blinked  by  Americans 
generally. 

In  a  general  way  we  may  say  then  that  manhood  suffrage 


FAILURE  AND   DANGERS   OF   UNLIMITED   SUFFRAGE  9 

is  everywhere  in  the  United  States  the  legally  recognized 
method  of  choosing  all  our  lawmakers  and  many  of  our  ad- 
ministrative officials;  that  white  manhood  suffrage  actually 
obtains  in  the  Southern  States;  and  that  in  the  other  States 
constituting  about  three  fourths  of  the  whole,  every  resident 
male  citizen,  native  or  naturalized,  and  in  some  of  them  resi- 
dents not  naturalized,  may  vote.  In  sixteen  of  the  forty- 
eight  States  the  suffrage  has  within  recent  years  been  extended 
to  women.  So  that  at  present  the  basis  of  government  in  the 
United  States  is  manhood  or  male  suffrage  in  all  the  States  with 
the  addition  in  some  of  them  of  female  suffrage;  or  in  other 
words,  ignoring  the  negro  situation,  we  have  manhood  suf- 
frage in  thirty- two  and  universal  suffrage  in  sixteen  States. 
In  all  of  these  States  elections  are  frequent,  in  most  annual, 
in  others  biennial,  in  a  few  quadrennial. 

The  controlling  political  importance  of  these  elections  is 
evident  when  we  consider  that  thereby  are  chosen  all  the  mem- 
bers of  both  houses  of  the  various  State  Legislatures,  of  both 
houses  of  Congress,  the  governors  of  the  states  and  the  Presi- 
dent and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  that  is  to  say  the 
entire  body  of  lawmakers  of  the  country.  Also  in  many  of 
the  States  are  thus  selected  the  Judges  of  the  Courts  higher 
and  lower,  and  numerous  administrative  state  officials,  such 
as  State  Attorneys,  Auditors,  State  Engineers,  Financial  Offi- 
cers, etc.  Besides  these  there  are  elections  of  almost  equal 
practical  importance  of  minor  or  local  officers,  such  as  Sheriffs, 
County  Attorneys  and  Supervisors,  Mayors  and  Aldermen  of 
Cities,  and  miscellaneous  officials.  Beyond  all  this,  the  elec- 
torate is  required  from  time  to  time,  and  in  some  States  at 
nearly  every  election,  to  pass  upon  constitutions,  or  amend- 
ments or  provisions  of  constitutions,  state  and  federal,  refer- 
enda and  propositions  of  various  kinds  involving  sometimes 
vast  expenditures.  For  none  of  these  elections  is  any  voting 
qualification  practically  required  of  the  resident  citizen,  ex- 
cept that  of  color,  and  that  only  in  the  South. 

It  is  interesting  and  curious  to  note  how  under  our  system 


10       POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

of  popular  elections,  government  as  legally  constituted  is  merely 
a  product  of  a  process  of  aggregation  of  numbers.  In  practise, 
this  numerical  system  is  modified  by  the  low  despotism  of  Boss 
rule,  but  in  theory  it  rests  on  an  arithmetical  count  of  heads, 
many  of  them  cracked,  others  of  various  degrees  of  emptiness, 
without  taking  note  of  merit,  capacity  or  fitness.  And  right  here 
in  order  to  fully  realize  the  force  and  sweep  of  the  numerical 
system  of  government  we  should  remember  that  the  effect  of 
the  vote  of  the  electorate  is  not  confined  to  the  directly  elective 
offices;  it  extends  to  the  appointive  offices  as  well;  for  the 
appointing  power,  whether  President,  Governor,  Senate  or 
Legislature  being  chosen  by  election,  is  under  the  necessity  of 
selecting  his  or  its  appointees  from  those  of  its  supporters  who 
control  the  most  votes.  It  is  not  therefore  surprising  that  the 
politician  whom  the  votes  of  the  populace  have  made  Presi- 
dent or  Governor  sometimes  appoints  a  knave  or  demagogue 
to  public  office.  Such  appointment,  however  offensive  to  some 
of  us,  may  have  been  in  strict  accordance  with  our  political 
system.  Under  that  system  the  ultimate  appeal  is  never  to 
experience,  ability,  capacity  or  character,  but  always  to  num- 
bers; and  therefore  the  official  indebted  to  the  power  of  num- 
bers for  his  own  high  office  may  possibly  be  quite  justified  in 
continuing  the  process,  and  in  bestowing  his  appointments  on 
the  representative  or  controller  of  numbers,  no  matter  what  his 
quality  or  theirs.  To  use  the  language  of  practical  politics 
"the  man  with  a  following  is  entitled  to  recognition"  be  he 
demagogue,  rogue  or  humbug;  and  the  President,  Governor  or 
Boss  who  fails  to  give  it  to  him  is  false  to  the  modern  Ameri- 
can principle  of  "numbers  win";  in  a  word  he  is  un-American; 
and  is  likely  to  suffer  politically  in  consequence.  In  fact  we 
may  say  generally  that  government  in  this  country  is  authorized 
by  numbers,  rests  on  numbers,  and  is  backed  and  sanctified 
by  numbers  and  naught  else;  while  our  governing  class  count 
numbers,  live  by  numbers  and  need  respect  nothing  but  num- 
bers if  of  numbers  they  can  obtain  sufficient  support.  The 
President  is  selected  and  appointed  as  the  result  of  a  numerical 


FAILURE  AND  DANGERS   OF   UNLIMITED   SUFFRAGE          II 

reckoning;  and  so  with  all  other  officials  and  the  men  who 
choose  the  officials;  the  laws  are  made  either  by  men  chosen 
by  the  addition  of  figures,  or  more  directly  by  a  similar  count 
of  voters;  nearly  all  of  whom  are  absolutely  ignorant  of  the 
merits  and  scope  of  the  projected  legislation  and  each  of  them 
lacking  other  qualification  than  that  he  exists  and  can  be 
counted.  The  candidate  with  the  largest  total  gets  the  office; 
the  project  approved  by  the  greatest  number  becomes  law. 

Our  government  is  not  one  of  talent,  nor  cunning,  nor  of 
money,  nor  birth,  nor  military  force,  but  of  numeral  computa- 
tion; our  rulers  are  not  hereditary  nor  called  to  rule  for  their 
merits  nor  by  the  grace  of  God;  they  are  counted  in;  it  is  a 
government  by  calculation,  an  arithmetical  government.  Our 
ruling  classes  are  not  aristocrats,  nor  militarists,  nor  states- 
men, nor  capitalists,  nor  landowners;  they  are  handshakers, 
mixers,  they  have  "followings,"  and  their  political  weight  in 
council  does  not  depend  on  their  wisdom,  but  on  the  numbers 
of  the  mob  running  at  their  heels.  We  are  taught  politically 
to  think  in  numbers,  to  believe  in  numbers;  in  fact,  politically 
we  believe  in  nothing  else. 

Now  it  is  clear  that  the  effect  of  this  regime  is  to  disregard 
much  that  statesmanship  should  take  into  account  in  framing 
a  nation's  polity.  There  are  many  other  considerations  be- 
sides mere  numbers  which  affect  men  politically;  other  forces 
which  far  more  than  mere  numbers  operate  towards  the  de- 
velopment of  mankind,  the  shaping  of  human  destiny,  the  estab- 
.  lishment  and  fall  of  political  institutions;  all  of  which  forces 
are  by  our  political  system  completely  ignored.  In  a  free  play 
of  political  life  we  would  expect  for  instance  to  reckon  with 
intellect,  capacity,  energy,  industry,  wisdom,  knowledge,  judg- 
ment, prudence,  physical  strength,  wealth,  experience,  train- 
ing, efficiency,  and  perhaps  other  qualities,  but  in  our  political 
scheme  none  of  them  is  considered;  everything  is  ascertained 
and  decided  upon  and  all  doubts  resolved  by  an  arithmetical 
process;  you  take  a  count  and  the  thing  is  done.  Be  the 
question,  for  instance,  who  is  the  properest  man  to  fill  an  ad- 


12        POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

minis trative  office  of  trust  and  importance;  on  the  one  hand  is 
A  who  has  a  good  physique,  is  of  a  fine  family,  habits  good, 
long  training  and  experience,  excellent  education,  bright  past 
record  for  efficiency  and  honor;  and  on  the  other  B  who  has 
none  of  these  valuable  qualities,  is  a  little  shady  in  fact;  but 
a  glib  platform  speaker.  The  number  of  votes  is  counted 
and  B  has  the  more  and  is  thus  positively  ascertained  to  be  the 
man  for  the  place.  Is  not  this  wonderful?  Tried  by  any  other 
test  he  would  have  been  declared  unfit  for  the  position;  but 
the  numeral  system  conclusively  demonstrated  his  fitness.  And 
indeed  the  writer  is  compelled  to  admit  that  the  number  sys- 
tem is  deservedly  popular  with  those  able  to  profit  by  it,  and 
has  given  promotion  to  thousands  of  nonentities  who  would 
otherwise  have  remained  in  obscurity.  So  of  a  project  of  law 
involving  difficult  questions  of  justice  and  expediency;  students 
of  civics  and  even  great  statesmen  may  be  in  doubt  as  to 
whether  it  ought  not  to  be  amended  or  modified;  but  with  our 
system  in  operation  there  is  no  need  for  study  or  hesitation; 
you  just  invite  every  one  to  say  "Yes"  or  "No."  Possibly  the 
majority  will  not  understand  the  project  at  all  or  will  mis- 
understand it,  but  that  makes  no  difference:  understanding  is 
not  necessary  to  voting;  it  is  numbers  that  count,  not  under- 
standing. Possibly  a  conscientious  or  indolent  third  of  the 
voters  will  decline  to  vote;  that  makes  no  difference  either; 
possibly  every  one  of  the  few  who  really  understand  the  propo- 
sition is  opposed  to  it,  but  that  is  of  little  practical  consequence 
as  the  knowledge  or  ignorance  of  the  voters  is  immaterial  and 
is  never  made  the  subject  of  inquiry;  possibly  the  scheme  is 
imperfect  and  to  the  knowledge  of  the  well  informed  plainly 
needs  amendment;  it  matters  not,  there  is  no  provision  for 
amendment  of  details  in  the  numerical  system;  possibly  the 
project  has  never  been  properly  presented  to  the  electorate  and 
most  of  the  votes  pro  or  con  are  the  result  of  ignorance,  whim 
or  prejudice;  but  this  fact  will  not  be  considered  in  the  result, 
for  an  ignorant  or  prejudiced  vote  is  just  as  valid  as  a  just  and 
wise  one.  The  system  is  unfailing;  it  will  solve  every  dim- 


FAILURE  AND  DANGERS   OF   UNLIMITED   SUFFRAGE          13 

culty;  the  doubts  of  able  statesmen  are  answered  in  a  mo- 
ment by  the  vote  of  the  female  mill  hands  of  Factoryville. 
You  are  sure  to  get  some  decision,  and  any  decision  will  serve; 
for  no  matter  how  foolish  or  unreasonable  it  may  be,  no  one 
is  responsible;  there  is  no  appeal  and  practically  no  redress. 
This  electoral  scheme  would  seem  to  imply  a  general  belief 
in  the  capacity  of  the  electorate.  It  would  at  first  blush  ap- 
pear to  be  founded  upon  a  theory  of  the  superior  wisdom  and 
almost  superhuman  knowledge  and  virtue  of  the  masses, 
whereby  every  voter  is  presumed  to  know  who  are  best  fitted 
to  fill  the  offices  of  Mayor,  Alderman,  Sheriff,  County  and 
State  Attorney,  Judge  of  Courts  small  or  large,  State  Assembly- 
man, State  Senator,  Congressman,  State  Engineer  and  Sur- 
\  veyor,  Governor  of  the  State,  and  President  of  the  United 
States;  and  it  would  seem,  besides,  that  every  voter,  male  or 
female,  is  presumed  to  cast  his  or  her  vote  with  the  good  of  the 
community  and  nation  at  heart.  The  verdict  so  taken  would 
thus  have  something  of  the  effect  of  an  infallible  decree;  and 
indeed  we  note  that  people  and  newspapers  often  speak  of  the 
results  of  an  election  with  a  species  of  awe;  and  that  in  the 
somewhat  too  common  event  of  a  doubtful  character  or  even 
of  a  noted  scamp  being  elected  to  a  public  office  the  result  is 
often  spoken  of  as  his  "vindication."  These  "vindications" 
in  fact  are  frequently  needed  and  demanded  by  political  gen- 
tlemen under  a  cloud,  and  have  been  accorded  by  the  electorate 
in  a  surprisingly  large  number  of  cases.  Nor  does  the  mere 
capacity  to  select  the  best  officials  measure  the  full  quota  of 
the  wisdom  and  accuracy  apparently  required  by  the  populace 
under  our  political  system.  They,  every  man  jack,  and  in  the 
"advanced"  States,  every  woman  jenny  of  them  all  is  from 
time  to  time  required  to  vote  upon  questions  which  presuppose 
them  to  be  perfectly  familiar  with  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  and  of  his  and  her  own  State;  to  understand  all 
its  provisions  and  to  be  able  to  determine  the  meaning  and 
effect  of  any  and  all  amendments  thereto,  which  are  or  may 
possibly  be  proposed. 


14       POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

Now,  all  this  is  of  course  absurd;  no  such  belief  in  the 
wisdom  of  the  electorate  is  entertained  by  the  masses  or  by 
anybody,  for  no  one  in  the  world  is  such  a  fool  as  not  to  be 
aware  that  at  every  election  large  numbers  of  the  voters  are 
absolutely  incapable  of  passing  upon  the  merits  of  candidates 
far  above  them  in  education,  station  in  life,  and  capacity  to 
fill  offices  whose  high  duties  they  could  not  be  made  to  under- 
stand by  any  amount  of  explanation.  Few  even  of  the  most  ig- 
norant are  unaware  that  only  trained  minds  are  capable  of  con- 
struing and  understanding  constitutional  provisions  and  fore- 
casting their  probable  effects.  There  must  therefore  exist 
within  the  manhood  suffrage  scheme,  some  principle  or  theory 
more  sane  than  a  belief  in  the  omniscience  of  the  rabble  of 
ignorance,  stupidity  and  indifference  which  it  proudly  mar- 
shals to  the  polls;  and  though  this  principle  or  theory  has 
never  been  precisely  or  authoritatively  defined,  yet  on  examin- 
ing the  numerous  written  or  spoken  expressions  in  support  of 
universal  suffrage  found  in  books,  speeches  and  newspaper 
articles,  we  discover  that  the  postulate  at  the  bottom  of  the 
manhood  suffrage  proposition  is  this:  not  that  the  mass  of 
voters  are  competent  judges  of  conditions  or  policies,  but  that 
they  are  the  natural,  necessary  and  proper  arbiters  thereof;  not 
that  ignorance,  stupidity  and  vice  do  not  go  to  the  polls,  but 
that  in  the  nature  of  the  case  they  are  there  and  have  a 
right  to  be  there;  that  it  is  intended  and  expected  that 
they  shall  be  actually  represented  and  expressed  in  the 
vote;  that  in  politics  all  have  equal  right  to  be  heard; 
that  government  and  law  should  be  an  expression  of  the  will 
of  all  the  people  or  at  least  of  all  of  the  men  of  this  coun- 
try; not  merely  of  those  having  patriotism,  experience,  virtue, 
judgment,  and  wisdom,  or  any  one  of  these  qualities;  but  of 
the  whole  populace;  including  the  ignorant,  stupid,  worthless 
and  depraved;  and  that  each  of  these  latter  should  have  an 
equal  voice  with  the  wise  and  worthy.  Such  is  and  must  be  the 
underlying  theory  of  manhood  suffrage;  and  as  women  are  no- 
toriously still  more  ignorant  of  political  affairs  than  men,  the 


FAILURE  AND  DANGERS   OF   UNLIMITED   SUFFRAGE          1$ 

adoption  of  woman  suffrage  is  evidently  a  mere  extension  of 
this  same  theory  of  equality  of  political  value  to  the  female 
sex;  so  that  under  a  system  of  universal  suffrage  the  law  and 
the  government  include  the  expression  of  the  ignorance,  stu- 
pidity and  depravity  of  both  sexes  of  the  community,  state 
or  nation  as  well  as  of  its  education,  wisdom  and  goodness. 
And  this  principle  is  in  effect  generally  carried  out  at  our 
elections;  so  that  practically  the  only  disfranchised  classes  are 
those  of  the  publicly  supported  paupers  and  the  negroes  in  the 
South,  and  the  whole  immense  national  mass  of  ignorance,  in- 
capacity and  hostility  to  social  wellbeing  is  included  in  our 
voting  lists  and  finds  expression  at  the  polls. 

From  an  electorate  so  constituted,  from  a  system  of  govern- 
ment founded  on  such  a  perverse  theory  no  good  results  are  or 
ever  were  to  be  expected.  Accordingly,  we  are  not  surprised 
to  note  that  the  first  plain  signs  of  a  general  political  deteriora- 
tion in  American  politics  were  about  coincident  with  the  estab- 
lishment of  manhood  suffrage  in  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  For  the  first  forty  years  of  the  republic  politics  were 
comparatively  pure;  the  United  States  was  a  model  among 
nations;  then  we  note  a  fatal  declension,  a  swift  lowering  of 
standards;  we  observe  the  close  connection  between  the  estab- 
lishment of  manhood  suffrage  and  the  entrance  into  high 
places  of  low  politicians;  how  upon  the  widening  of  the  fran- 
chise the  management  and  control  of  politics  in  the  United 
States  began  gradually  to  pass  from  the  hands  of  the  principal 
men  of  the  country,  the  ablest,  the  most  wealthy,  the  best 
educated,  the  most  influential,  the  members  of  the  oldest  and 
best  families,  and  to  fall  under  the  control  of  the  professional 
politicians.  This  latter  class  originating  at  about  that  period 
developed  into  well  organized  bands  who  under  the  leadership 
of  chiefs,  since  known  as  bosses,  have  seized,  occupied  and  still 
hold  and  occupy  the  offices,  the  machinery  of  public  elections, 
appointments,  and  almost  the  entire  control  of  public  affairs. 
Their  management  and  control  have  been  selfish,  corrupt  and 
inefficient.  Their  legislation  has  been  excessive  and  poor  in 


1 6       POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

quality;  their  administration  of  governmental  affairs  ignorant, 
weak,  capricious,  oppressive,  wasteful,  careless  and  dishonest. 
During  all  this  time  the  system  of  manhood  suffrage  has  re- 
mained unassailed  and  unquestioned,  and  the  people  have  lis- 
tened more  or  less  complacently  to  fulsome  praises  of  their 
government  system  by  a  venal  and  superficial  press  and  by 
ignorant  and  insincere  political  platform  orators.  These,  in 
their  speeches  and  platforms  have  been  easily  able  to  escape 
imputation  of  the  mischiefs  of  manhood  suffrage  and  of  their 
own  class  by  charging  them  upon  the  opposite  party,  or  upon 
such  of  their  political  opponents  as  happened  for  the  time 
being  to  hold  public  office.  And  so  elections  have  come  and 
gone,  parties  have  risen  and  fallen,  officials  have  been  selected 
as  popular  one  year  and  thrown  aside  as  unsatisfactory  the 
next,  but  through  it  all  corruption  and  inefficiency  remain 
constant  and  acknowledged  features  of  American  political 
life. 

The  time  has  come  when  a  remedy  for  this  state  of  things 
can  no  longer  be  safely  postponed;  the  situation  is  serious; 
the  democratic  system  is  being  attacked,  and  will  continue  to 
be  attacked  here  and  elsewhere  by  great  numbers  of  the  very 
class  who  have  heretofore  been  supposed  to  constitute  its  de- 
fenders and  champions.  Be  they  Bolsheviki,  Anarchists,  So- 
cialists or  what  you  will,  these  assailants  of  our  institutions 
are  nearly  all  of  the  common  people,  of  the  very  working  class 
whom  it  has  been  and  ought  to  be  the  pride  and  mission  of 
America  to  shelter  and  satisfy.  Many  of  them  were  brought  to 
this  attitude  of  revolt  by  evil  conditions  in  Europe  and  are  con- 
tinuing here  their  hostile  attitude  to  organized  society  and 
spreading  the  spirit  of  mischief  among  us  because  they  are 
justly  disappointed  by  our  political  conditions;  finding  here 
in  a  country  supposed  to  be  democratic,  the  rule  of  a  corrupt 
oligarchy  of  politicians  thoroughly  established  and  apparently 
acquiesced  in  by  the  people  at  large.  The  seeds  of  discontent 
which  they  are  assiduously  sowing  are  likely  to  take  root  in 
the  breasts  of  our  own  people,  disgruntled  as  they  are  with  the 


FAILURE  AND  DANGERS   OF   UNLIMITED   SUFFRAGE          17 

past  and  present  corruption  of  our  politics  and  the  inefficiency 
of  our  government. 

This  corruption,  this  inefficiency,  long  a  scandal  among  us, 
is  the  real  cause  of  that  popular  "unrest,"  that  dissatisfaction 
the  subject  of  so  much  comment,  which  for  more  than  a  genera- 
tion just  prior  to  the  German  war  had  been  steadily  increasing 
in  this  country.  It  was  started  by  the  degradation  of  politics 
which  ensued  immediately  upon  the  establishment  of  manhood 
suffrage  and  the  inauguration  of  Jackson  and  the  Spoils  Policy 
in  1829.  It  was  already  well  under  way  in  1840;  but  was 
subsequently  held  in  check  by  the  Anti-Slavery  agitation,  by 
the  Civil  War  and  the  Southern  Reconstruction  troubles,  which 
ended  in  1876  with  the  inauguration  of  Hayes.  From  that 
time  this  popular  protest  against  our  political  unrighteousness 
has  been  steadily  on  the  increase,  gaining  in  power  and  bitter- 
ness with  the  added  instances  of  official  unfitness  and  malad- 
ministration of  public  affairs.  With  the  disappearance  of  the 
older  generations  reared  in  a  religious  belief  in  our  republican 
institutions  and  filled  with  memories  of  the  honest  days  before 
Jackson,  appeared  the  spirit  of  contemptuous  disbelief  in  offi- 
cial capacity  and  honesty  which  has  taken  possession  of 
their  descendants.  The  vision  of  a  government  administered 
by  statesmen  and  patriots  of  the  type  of  Washington  and  the 
Adamses  has  given  place  in  the  mind  of  America  to  a  picture 
of  a  sordid  gang  of  corrupt  and  incapable  politicians  in  power, 
and  it  is  therefore  to  the  credit  of  our  people  that  there  has 
been  protest,  dissatisfaction  and  "unrest."  The  popular  de- 
mand that  this  state  of  things  be  remedied  is  at  the  bottom  of 
the  so-called  "unrest,"  and  it  is  not  an  unreasonable  demand. 
Never  in  the  world's  history  was  there  a  people  so  religious, 
so  patriotic,  so  disinterested,  so  idealistic,  so  appreciative,  so 
tolerant  of  mere  mistakes,  so  easy  to  govern  justly  as  the 
American  people;  but  the  best  of  them  are  determined  that 
their  republican  government  shall  be  the  ultimate  success  their 
fathers  promised  to  make  it.  They  care  much  less  about 
"world  democracy" ;  they  are  far  from  being  such  consummate 


1 8       POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

fools  as  to  believe  that  our  political  system  is  fit  for  other  and 
inferior  races  or  to  want  to  meddle  with  the  affairs  of  other 
nations;  but  they  want  Americanism  to  continue  here;  they 
want  honest  and  efficient  government  established  in  this  coun- 
try; and  they  fear  the  breakdown  of  those  republican  institu- 
tions to  which  they  feel  a  passionate  devotion. 

There  have  indeed  been  no  lack  of  efforts  at  reform.  All 
sorts  of  expedients  have  been  proposed  and  every  remedy 
possible  has  been  adopted  and  tried  except  the  only  one  which 
could  possibly  be  efficacious,  namely,  the  limitation  and  eleva- 
tion of  the  electorate.  This  and  the  other  new  idea  or  so- 
called  political  reform  has  been  tried  and  discarded,  or  proved 
of  little  value;  hundreds  of  penal  statutes  have  been  enacted, 
hundreds  of  boards,  commissions  and  officials  of  various  sorts 
have  been  created;  there  have  been  innumerable  grand  jury 
inquests  and  committees  of  investigations;  there  have  been 
created  new  ballot  systems,  new  primary  laws;  initiatives  and 
referendums,  besides  thousands  of  tax-payers'  suits,  injunc- 
tions, newspaper  campaigns,  new  reform  parties  and  fusions  of 
old  parties,  not  with  the  slightest  hope  of  reaching  perfection, 
but  in  desperate  efforts  on  behalf  of  common  decency.  All 
have  failed.  Countless  political  movements  have  been  started 
and  political  campaigns  fought  in  the  effort  to  cure  the  delin- 
quency, to  cleanse  the  corruption  of  our  local  and  general 
governments,  with  varying  temporary  success,  but  without 
permanent  benefit.  Men  have  spent  their  lives  and  fortunes 
in  the  effort;  each  new  generation  hopefully  undertaking  the 
task  of  cleaning  the  stable  only  to  abandon  it  in  its  turn;  and 
nothing  permanent  or  even  enduring  has  been  accomplished. 
Here  and  there,  an  individual  or  a  group  of  political  malefac- 
tors has  been  punished;  here  and  there  schemes  for  public 
plunder  have  been  exposed  and  defeated;  the  particular  sys- 
tem or  legislation  which  permitted  these  specific  instances  has 
been  changed  or  reformed;  this  or  that  particular  abuse  sup- 
pressed, and  in  the  aggregate  a  great  deal  of  mischief  has  thus 
been  done  away  with  or  prevented.  But  no  one  pretends  that 


FAILURE  AND  DANGERS   OF   UNLIMITED   SUFFRAGE          1 9 

the  root  of  the  evil  has  been  removed  or  that  the  grasp  of  the 
professional  politician  class  upon  the  throat  of  the  nation  has 
been  loosened.  The  elections  from  which  so  much  was  ex- 
pected, the  men  and  movements  from  which  so  much  was 
hoped,  have  come  and  gone  without  substantial  results.  The 
same  class  of  politicians,  the  same  methods,  the  same  political 
games,  the  same  corruption,  the  same  boss  rule,  the  same 
old  rings,  the  same  fraud,  cheating,  waste  and  general 
inefficiency  remain  the  most  striking  features  of  our 
American  public  life.  The  same  men,  though  not  always 
holding  the  same  places,  remain  in  office  year  after 
year,  and  the  rule  of  the  oligarchy  of  professional  politicians 
established  eighty  years  ago  goes  on  forever.  When  one 
of  its  members  is  turned  out  of  one  political  job  by  a  spurt  of 
indignation  of  a  gullible  and  innocent  public,  he  quickly 
appears  in  another  one  just  as  comfortable  and  lucrative,  and 
sometimes  with  a  capacity  for  mischief  and  blundering  rather 
increased  than  diminished  by  the  change. 

Seeing  this,  the  reformers  naturally  ask  each  other  in  wonder 
and  disgust  what  is  the  matter  with  the  people?  What  is  the 
cause  of  their  failure  to  rid  themselves  of  these  political  gangs? 
What  is  the  remedy  and  where  is  it  to  be  found?  To  ascer- 
tain the  cause,  to  correctly  diagnose  the  disease  is  of  course  the 
first  and  the  main  problem.  Afterwards  the  remedy.  The  fact 
that  it  persists  and  has  so  long  persisted  in  operation  affords 
evidence  that  it  is  not  superficial  but  represents  an  organic 
defect  in  our  governmental  system.  Many  political  students 
have  puzzled  over  it,  many  have  given  the  inquiry  up  as 
hopeless.  In  an  article  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  for  July,  1896, 
the  writer,  referring  to  our  legislative  bodies,  notes 

"a  decline  in  the  quality  of  the  members  in  general  respect,  in 
education,  in  social  position,  in  morality,  in  public  spirit,  in  care 
and  deliberation,  and,  I  think,  I  must  add  in  integrity  also."  He 
finds  them  subservient  to  the  Boss  rather  than  to  public  opinion 
and  adds,  "To  account  for  this  or  to  say  how  it  is  to  be  mended,  is, 
I  admit,  very  difficult.  Few  subjects  have  done  more  to  baffle  re- 


2O       POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

formers  and  investigators.     It  is  the  great  puzzle  of  the  heartiest 
friends  of  Democracy." 


Among  people  generally  there  is  a  failure  to  agree  upon  any 
specific  cause  for  the  sad  inferiority  of  our  political  condition. 
Some  attribute  it  to  human  frailty;  some  to  American  careless- 
ness or  good  nature;  some  to  the  spirit  of  the  age,  some  to  the 
inherent  weakness  of  democracy.  In  a  very  able  and  scholarly 
little  book  published  as  late  as  1918  by  Max  Farrand  of  Yale 
University  entitled  The  Development  of  the  United  States, 
the  writer,  after  referring  to  persistent  and  ineffectual  attempts 
of  reformers  for  the  past  generation  to  cleanse  politics  in  this 
country,  makes  this  significant  statement  (p.  293):  "It  is 
"surprising  that  the  people  still  retain  faith  in  any  remedies, 
"but  hope  springs  eternal  and  every  new  plan  was  able  to  rally 
"ardent  supporters.  To  the  thoughtful  observer,  however,  it 
"was  evident  that  the  root  of  the  trouble  had  not  been  found 
"and  that  something  more  radical  or  something  entirely  dif- 
ferent was  necessary."  I  find  no  hint  in  Farrand's  book  as  to 
what  this  "something"  might  be.  One  may  suspect  that  the 
worthy  professor  had  tracked  the  bear  to  his  den  but  did  not 
care  to  start  him;  that  he  preferred  to  avoid  making  his  book 
the  subject  of  controversy  by  giving  his  opinion  as  to  what  is 
in  fact  "the  root  of  the  trouble." 

However,  he  states  the  problem  in  a  nutshell.  All  efforts  to 
reform  and  cleanse  our  politics  have  failed,  something  new  and 
different  is  needed,  some  remedy  that  will  reach  the  very  source 
of  the  political  corruption  of  our  time  and  country.  But  after 
all,  there  need  be  very  little  difficulty  in  finding  the  "root  of  the 
trouble";  it  lies  exposed,  plain  enough  for  all  men  to  see  and 
to  stumble  over  as  they  pass  to  and  fro.  Many  no  doubt  have 
identified  it  who  prefer  to  be  silent  on  the  subject,  though  a 
few  prominent  men  have  spoken  out.  President  Woolsey  of 
Yale,  for  example,  frankly  says  that  "universal  suffrage  does 
"not  secure  the  government  of  the  wisest  nor  even  secures  the 
"liberties  of  a  country  placed  in  such  a  democratic  situation, 


FAILURE  AND  DANGERS   OF   UNLIMITED   SUFFRAGE          21 

"much  less  secures  its  order  and  stability."  (Pol.  Science.  Vol. 
I,  Sec.  101).  In  Reemelin's  American  Politics  (1881)  the 
author  says  in  his  chapter  on  the  ballot  box  that  "thickly 
"strewn  around  us  lie  the  evidences,  that  governing  by  the  bal- 
"lot  box,  based  on  universal  suffrage  and  universal  qualifica- 
tion for  office  is  a  failure;  but  why  this  is  so,  and  what  remedy 
"we  should  apply  is  not  so  intelligible."  (P.  168.)  In  1871  the 
Westminster  Review,  a  British  radical  magazine,  published 
an  article  on  The  American  Republic,  its  Strength  and  Weak- 
ness in  which  the  dangers  of  manhood  suffrage  were  plainly 
pointed  out,  and  its  institution  attributed  to  the  efforts  of 
demagogues,  and  to  a  mistaken  conception  of  suffrage  as  a 
right  instead  of  as  a  privilege  to  be  conferred  upon  those  ca- 
pable of  exercising  it.  The  writer  sums  up  the  topic  by  saying 
that: 

"The  elevation  of  the  government,  laws  and  institutions  of  a 
republic  must  necessarily  depend  upon  the  average  intelligence  and 
virtue  of  its  voting  population.  Hence  it  is  a  most  dangerous  experi- 
ment for  America  to  reduce  the  qualifications  of  its  voters  to  the 
level  of  the  lowest,  instead  of  raising  the  latter  to  a  certain  definite 
standard  at  which  the  right  of  suffrage  might  with  comparative 
safety  be  placed  in  their  hands." 

Another  writer  thus  expresses  himself: 

"It  is  perfectly  idle  to  attempt  to  give  political  power  to  persons 
who  have  no  political  capacity,  who  are  not  intellectual  enough  to 
form  opinions  or  who  are  not  high  minded  enough  to  act  on  those 
opinions.  .  .  .  Lastly  the  events  of  the  earlier  part  of  the  last  cen- 
tury show  us  —  demonstrate  we  may  say,  to  us,  —  the  necessity  of 
retaining  a  very  great  share  of  power  in  the  hands  of  the  wealthier 
and  more  instructed  classes,  of  the  real  rulers  of  public  opinion." 
(Bagehot,  Parliamentary  Reform,  p.  316.) 

And  Lecky  predicts  that  the  day  will  come  when  the  adop- 
tion of  the  theory  that  the  best  way  to  improve  the  world  and 
secure  national  progress  is  to  place  the  government  under  the 


22        POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN    THE   UNITED    STATES 

,   control  of  the  least  enlightened  classes  will  be  regarded  as  one 
V  of  the  strangest  facts  in  the  history  of  human  folly. 

Indeed,  but  little  political  discernment  is  required  to  enable 
one  to  realize  the  fatal  mischiefs  attendant  upon  the  plan  of 
according  a  place  in  the  electorate  to  females  generally  and 
to  the  ignorant,  idle,  unthrifty,  purchasable,  vicious  and  anti- 
social males.  It  is  not  difficult  to  see  that  such  a  scheme  is 
erroneous  in  principle,  antagonistic  to  civilization,  and  to  so- 
ciety as  the  agent  of  civilization.  History  informs  us  that  man- 
hood suffrage  is  contrary  to  our  best  traditions;  that  it  has 
been  mischievous  and  unclean  in  practise;  that  it  has  filled  the 
body  politic  with  the  foulest  corruption;  that  it  is  largely 
responsible  for  the  Civil  War  and  other  serious  blunders  and 
mischiefs;  that  it  has  cost  thousands  of  millions  to  the  Ameri- 
can people  in  money  stolen  and  squandered.  Reason  plainly 
teaches  us  that  the  suffrage  is  not  a  natural  right,  but  a  func- 
tion in  the  social  system  belonging  only  to  those  who  by  the 
process  of  natural  selection  are  qualified  as  men  of  education 
and  property  to  take  a  part  in  government;  that  unlimited 
universal  or  manhood  suffrage  is  dangerous  for  the  future  and 
if  not  overthrown  may  ultimately  cause  our  national  destruc- 
tion. There  is  not  therefore  after  all  any  real  difficulty  in 
determining  that  universal  suffrage  is  the  political  disease 
under  which  America  is  suffering.  Its  specific  cause  is  the 
virus  of  the  rabble  vote;  men  without  character  and  destitute 
of  achievement  should  be  excluded  from  the  suffrage;  they  are 
by  nature  political  nonentities,  and  were  they  content  to  mark 
zero  on  their  ballots  thus  indicating  the  real  extent  of  their 
political  value  and  sagacity  they  would  be  harmless;  but 
they  are  too  often  the  willing  tools  of  scamps  and  demagogues, 
and  though  individually  zeros  they  attach  themselves  to  real 
figures  to  give  them  a  fictitious  and  in  this  case  a  maleficent 
influence.  Nor  is  the  remedy  far  to  seek,  though  so  many 
political  writers  have  been  rather  shy  in  hinting  it.  It  is  pos- 
sible by  very  simple  mean?,  by  a  mere  return  to  the  original 
American  principle  and  American  practice  of  a  property  quali- 


FAILURE  AND  DANGERS   OF   UNLIMITED   SUFFRAGE          23 

fication  for  voters  to  so  reform  our  entire  governmental  sys- 
tem from  the  foundation  upwards  that  it  will  become  efficient 
and  enduring  and  capable  of  defying  all  the  political  madness 
of  the  times.  The  democratic  theory  would  thus  be  retained, 
but  it  would  be  purified  and  strengthened  by  a  return  to  the 
principles  of  the  fathers  of  the  republic.  We  have  failed  be- 
cause we  have  attempted  in  defiance  of  those  principles  to 
create  a  democracy  founded  on  numbers  and  on  nothing  but 
numbers.  The  resulting  product  has  not  been  a  true  democ- 
racy; it  has  not  properly  represented  and  does  not  properly 
represent  the  American  nation,  which  consists  not  merely  of 
population  but  of  American  intelligence  and  industry.  The 
manhood  suffrage  democracy  of  numbers  merely  is  too  narrow; 
it  does  not  afford  a  broad  enough  foundation  for  the  national 
superstructure;  and  that  foundation  should  be  widened  to  in- 
clude the  American  character  and  American  achievement. 
The  real  difficulty  in  the  case  lies  then  not  in  ascertaining 
the  source  of  American  political  ills,  nor  in  prescribing  the 
remedy;  the  difficulty  lies  in  obtaining  leadership  or  even  advo- 
cacy of  a  movement  which  to  most  men  appears  to  promise  little 
in  the  way  of  personal  advancement  and  much  in  the  way  of 
hostile  criticism.  As  to  the  masses  in  private  life,  most  are 
indifferent  and  the  remainder  voiceless.  All  the  organs  of  pub- 
lic opinion  are  muzzled,  controlled  or  terrified  into  silence  by 
the  politicians;  and  but  few  in  public  life  whether  newspaper 
men,  clergymen,  judges,  politicians,  teachers  or  public  servants 
or  officials;  but  few  of  those  merely  dependent  upon  or  con- 
nected with  politics  or  government,  whether  bankers,  lawyers, 
physicians  in  hospitals,  officers  of  public  utilities  or  the  like, 
have  heretofore  dared  more  than  whisper  to  their  closest 
friends  their  real  hatred  of  the  political  despotism  under  which 
we  are  living  today  in  the  United  States.  Now,  however,  the 
present  menace  of  the  political  madness  known  as  Bolshevism 
affords  a  new  and  compelling  motive  to  every  true  American  to 
arouse  himself,  and  there  is  a  hope  that  in  the  presence  of  a 
new  peril,  good  citizens  may  be  moved  to  realize  the  inherent 


24       POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

weakness  and  danger  of  our  present  political  system,  and  to 
undertake  the  establishment  of  a  suffrage  based  upon  such 
qualifications  as  will  insure  the  creation  and  continuance  of  a 
government  in  this  country  so  strong,  determined,  intelligent 
and  devoted  to  the  interests  of  civilization  that  under  it  our 
whole  political  life  may  be  purified  and  made  efficient;  one 
which  may  be  relied  upon  not  merely  to  crush  Bolshevism  in 
the  United  States  but  to  extirpate  it  from  this  country -for ever. 
The  proposal  to  establish  a  property  qualification  for  voters 
throughout  the  United  States  may  seem  novel  and  even  startling 
to  many  Americans,  but  there  is  no  other  way  out  of  the  politi- 
cal mess  in  which  we  find  ourselves.  As  will  be  shown  in  detail 
in  subsequent  pages  the  corrupt  rule  of  the  low  professional 
politicians  of  this  country  is  made  secure  by  the  vote  of  the 
thriftless  and  controllable  class;  until  that  vote  is  expurgated 
there  can  be  no  purification  of  the  body  politic;  without  puri- 
fication there  can  be  no  efficiency;  and  unless  the  administra- 
tion of  our  public  affairs  is  purified  and  made  efficient  we 
cannot  either  answer  the  charges  of  the  enemies  of  our  institu- 
tions or  repel  their  attacks.  We  cannot  depend  upon  the 
electorate  as  at  present  made  up;  it  has  already  shown  its 
capacity  to  breed  and  encourage  bad  government;  the  thrift- 
less classes  are  all  ready  to  accept  Bolshevism  or  any  other 
economical  and  political  absurdity;  they  are  no  more  able 
to  understand  the  scheme  of  civilization  and  the  value  and 
importance  of  accumulations  of  earnings  and  creation  of  prop- 
erty in  furtherance  of  that  scheme  than  they  are  able  to 
understand  a  musical  symphony  or  a  problem  in  the  higher 
mathematics.  And  after  all  there  is  nothing  sacred  about  the 
doctrine  of  unlimited  suffrage;  it  is  only  a  political  experiment 
like  another;  and  the  well  known  record  of  its  complete  and 
dismal  failure  is  summarized  in  these  pages  where  it  is  shown 
that  it  has  not  been  an  instrument  of  progress  nor  a  means  of 
freedom,  but  that  its  tendency  has  been  and  is  towards  reaction 
and  despotism;  that  it  is  antisocial  and  hostile  to  civilization. 
The  proposal  to  make  property  accumulations  the  basis  of 


FAILURE  AND  DANGERS   OF   UNLIMITED   SUFFRAGE          25 

government,  though  it  is  sanctioned  by  ancient  practise,  is 
not  reactionary;  it  is  progressive,  as  every  return  to  old  and 
sound  principles  is  progressive.  Nor  will  it  create  or  tend 
to  create  a  narrow  or  exclusive  electorate;  it  will  on  the  con- 
trary have  a  broadening  effect  and  will  tend  to  furnish  a  truly 
popular  government,  one  resting  directly  on  the  consent  and 
the  votes  of  most  of  the  population,  and  utilizing  qualities 
of  virtue  and  manhood  now  denied  their  proper  effect  in  poli- 
tics. It  will  represent  directly  or  indirectly  every  element  of 
value  in  the  nation;  everything  on  which  a  democratic  gov- 
ernment depends  for  its  best  support;  namely,  the  industry, 
thrift,  wealth,  intelligence,  character  and  honest  independence 
of  its  people.  The  change  will  appear  in  the  overthrow  of  the 
rule  of  brute  force  and  the  curbing  of  the  present  despotism 
of  numbers.  Do  what  we  will,  the  passions  and  prejudices  of 
the  unthinking  and  uninstructed  will  always  affect  political 
action ;  but  if  our  democracy  is  to  survive  their  power  must  be 
checked  and  modified  by  associating  with  the  sway  of  num- 
bers the  powers  of  intelligence,  of  character,  and  of  industry 
which  working  together  constitute  efficiency. 

Every  generation  has  its  problems  which  it  must  solve  at 
its  peril.  Ours  is  before  us  and  must  shortly  be  met  if  the 
signs  tell  true.  Like  Edipus  we  must  answer  correctly  or  per- 
ish. And  the  question  is,  how  to  abolish  the  weak  and  corrupt 
rule  of  the  politicians  and  re-establish  a  pure,  firm,  intelligent 
and  truly  republican  government  in  the  United  States.  The 
true  answer  must  be  by  the  reform  and  elevation  of  the  elec- 
torate. Purify  the  source  and  the  stream  will  be  pure  and 
sweet. 

This  object  is  of  such  consequence  that  every  American 
ought  to  be  willing  to  devote  strong  efforts  to  its  accomplish- 
ment. And  first,  the  intelligent  and  patriotic  people  of  the 
country  need  to  be  aroused  to  a  sense  of  its  importance  and 
instructed  in  the  merits  of  the  case.  They  must  be  made  not 
merely  to  know  but  to  realize  vividly  the  main  features  of  the 
argument  for  a  property  qualification,  which  may  be  summa- 


26       POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES 

rized  in  ten  points,  namely:  (i)  That  this  government  was  not 
originally  founded  on  the  principle  of  universal  suffrage  but 
on  that  of  a  propertied  electorate.  (2)  That  the  permanency 
of  the  corrupt  and  inefficient  rule  of  the  political  oligarchy  in 
the  United  States  is  due  to  the  operation  of  universal  suffrage. 
(3)  That  there  is  no  natural  right  to  vote;  but  that  voting  is 
a  function  of  government  to  be  exercised  only  for  the  benefit 
of  society  and  never  merely  for  that  of  the  individual.  (4) 
That  government  in  our  day  is  a  highly  specialized  business 
institution  requiring  from  its  members  expert  knowledge 
rather  than  oratorical  gifts.  (5)  That  good  government  in  a 
democracy  requires  a  worthy  and  intelligent  electorate.  (6) 
That  the  franchise  laws  must  deal  with  classes,  not  with  in- 
dividuals. (7)  That  the  franchise  should  be  confined  to  those 
who  are  socially  qualified,  as  proven  by  lives  of  successful 
social  endeavor,  resulting  in  the  solid  acquisition  of  substantial 
property.  (8)  That  book  or  school  education  is  insufficient  to 
constitute  by  itself  a  franchise  qualification.  (9)  That  the 
body  or  mass  of  men  are  better  fitted  than  that  of  women  to 
exercise  all  political  functions,  voting  included,  and  that  there- 
fore women  should  be  denied  the  suffrage.  (10)  That  the 
elevation  of  the  franchise  is  absolutely  necessary  to  purify  our 
politics,  strengthen  our  government  and  protect  property  and 
civilization  from  threatened  anarchy. 

It  is  with  the  hope  of  assisting  in  this  work  that  this  book 
has  been  written  and  published.  It  is  not  within  its  plan  and 
scope  to  propose  and  discuss  in  minute  detail  the  exact  quali- 
fications of  voters  and  suffrage  restrictions  under  the  proposed 
new  system.  The  basic  principles  herein  advocated  once  recog- 
nized, the  detailed  regulations  for  their  enforcement  may 
properly  be  left  to  such  state  legislatures  or  conventions  as 
may  undertake  to  deal  with  the  matter.  They  would  obvi- 
ously differ  in  different  states  and  possibly  in  different  commu- 
nities. They  should  be  such  as  would  tend  to  insure  a  con- 
tribution by  the  voter  of  such  a  quota  of  intelligence, 
independence  and  good  judgment  in  casting  his  vote  as  will 


FAILURE  AND  DANGERS   OF   UNLIMITED   SUFFRAGE          21 

greatly  decrease  bribery  in  elections;  as  will  raise  the  standard 
of  candidates  for  office,  reduce  the  influence  of  demagogues 
and  "yellow"  journals,  elevate  the  tone  of  public  service,  and 
incidentally  encourage  good  citizenship  by  making  the  voting 
power  a  badge  of  honor  and  manhood  and  a  privilege  to  be 
sought  after  and  valued.  There  is  no  place  in  this  scheme 
for  an  educational  qualification;  such  a  requirement  would  be 
inconsistent  with  the  theory  of  this  book  which  is  that  the 
school  of  business  life  is  the  appropriate  preparation  for  the 
voting  booth.  The  class  of  men  of  good  education  who  are 
unable  to  acquire  a  modest  competence  in  this  country  are 
obviously  so  lacking  in  either  interest  in,  or  judgment  of,  practi- 
cal affairs  as  to  be  unfit  to  pass  upon  those  business  questions 
which  form  the  main  part  of  the  problems  of  government.  The 
world  of  books  on  the  one  hand  is  a  totally  different  realm 
from  the  world  of  business  and  of  politics  on  the  other  hand. 
Further,  an  educational  qualification  for  voters  is  absolutely 
impracticable;  it  could  not  possibly  be  enforced.  But  this 
subject  will  be  discussed  more  at  length  in  the  twenty-ninth 
chapter.  Meanwhile  let  us  briefly  examine  the  history  and 
operations  of  the  voting  system  in  the  United  States. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE  OLDEST  AND  BEST  AMERICAN  TRADITIONS  FAVOR 
A  RESTRICTED   SUFFRAGE 

MANY  of  us  have  been  accustomed  to  regard  the  principle 
of  manhood  suffrage  as  a  part  of  the  original  American  ideal. 
The  contrary  is  the  fact.  The  doctrine  that  voters  should  be 
qualified  for  their  duties  is  not  novel  in  America.  It  came 
to  the  country  with  its  first  settlers;  the  colonists  believed  in  it 
and  retained  it;  it  was  part  of  the  settled  policy  of  all  the 
colonies  for  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  progressive  and  flour- 
ishing years;  under  that  policy  they  built  up  the  country; 
raised  the  finest  crop  of  statesmen  and  patriots  it  has  ever 
produced;  fought  the  war  of  Independence;  wrote  the  Constitu- 
tion; established  the  Union  and  created  the  United  States  of 
America. 

The  species  of  a  democracy  which  we  now  have,  where 
capacity  is  unrecognized  and  unrepresented,  and  where  the 
votes  of  men  without  standing  in  the  community  may  and  do 
offset  and  defeat  the  votes  of  men  of  property,  of  business 
experience  and  sagacity  was  not  the  creation  of  the  Fathers 
of  the  American  Republic  and  was  not  tolerated  by  them.  In 
no  sense  is  manhood  suffrage  or  a  democracy  of  numbers  an 
integration  of  their  spirit.  They  sought  rather  to  establish  a 
system  of  government  by  capacity  and  intelligence,  and  de- 
sired that  the  measures  thereby  enacted  from  time  to  time 
should  be  the  result  not  of  an  appeal  to  numerical  superiority 
but  of  wise  and  careful  discussion  and  deliberation  by  bodies 
containing  the  most  ca^^jle  and  disinterested  men  in  the  com- 
munity. Most  of  them  no  doubt  expected  a  property  qualifi- 
cation for  voters  r  aterially  to  contribute  to  this  result  and 

28 


AMERICAN   TRADITIONS   FAVOR  RESTRICTED   SUFFRAGE      2Q 

they  saw  no  injustice  or  tyranny  in  demanding  a  qualification 
which  any  man  might  acquire  by  industry  and  thrift.  It  was 
not  the  men  of  1776  who  established  the  doctrine  of  manhood 
suffrage  in  the  United  States ;  and  though  in  some  of  the  more 
sparsely  settled  or  mountainous  states,  such  as  Vermont,  Ken- 
tucky and  New  Hampshire,  the  population  was  so  small  and 
conditions  were  so  primitive  that  suffrage  qualifications  seemed 
superfluous  and  were  never  adopted,  yet  the  country  as  a  whole, 
including  the  great  states  of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  Pennsylvania  and  Vir- 
ginia, stood  for  the  principle  of  a  properly  qualified  electorate 
long  after  American  independence. 

It  was  not  till  the  period  of  a  generation  after  the  death  of 
George  Washington,  when  the  most  prominent  of  those  who 
stood  for  pure  conservative  government  were  no  more,  and 
Washington,  himself  the  greatest  single  obstacle  to  political 
humbug  in  the  country,  was  but  a  memory,  that  the  barriers 
were  finally  removed  so  that  the  army  of  professional  politi- 
cians were  enabled  to  get  possession  of  every  government  in 
the  United  States.  Commencing  with  that  time  the  political 
control  which  the  fathers  had  endeavored  to  place  permanently 
in  the  hands  of  the  best,  most  enlightened  and  most  efficient 
was  gradually  transferred  to  the  hands  of  some  of  the  worst, 
most  ignorant  and  incompetent.  This  mischievous  transfer 
was  due  mostly  to  the  operation  of  manhood  suffrage.  It  is  by 
the  admission  to  the  electorate  of  the  poorest  quality  of  ma- 
terial that  politics  has  been  degraded  to  its  present  low  level; 
that  it  has  become  a  business  to  be  conducted  for  profit;  that 
professional  politicians  have  obtained  and  retained  power;  that 
the  intelligence  and  manhood  of  the  nation  have  been  deprived 
of  their  rightful  control  over  its  destiny;  and  that  the  country 
has  been  handed  over  to  gangs  of  sordid  rascals  to  be  plun- 
dered. That  it  has  been  plundered  cannot  be  denied.  The 
plundering  has  been  conducted  so  Op3nly,  scandalously  and 
notoriously  that  there  is  hardly  a  reader  of  this  book  who  is 
not  more  or  less  familiar  with  some  of  the  details,  though  its 


30       POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

extent  is  so  great  that  no  one  not  a  student  of  the  subject  can 
be  familiar  with  it  all. 

One  may  naturally  ask  how  comes  it  that  the  American 
people  not  only  submit  to  such  a  vile  despotism,  but  never 
seem  seriously  to  question  its  right  to  exist.  The  answer  is 
that  the  case  is  similar  to  that  of  the  recent  German  militarist 
domination;  the  country  is  in  the  clutches  of  a  political  oli- 
garchy which  controls  a  large  organized  body  of  those  who  live 
by  the  operation  of  universal  suffrage;  the  masses  are  taught 
to  believe  in  it,  and  the  most  of  those  who  are  sufficiently  in- 
structed to  fully  understand  its  stupidity  and  villainy  are  silent 
in  public  because  of  fear,  indifference  or  self-interest.  The 
newspapers  have  not  cloaked  the  rascalities  of  the  politicians, 
except  those  of  their  own  party,  because  political  sensations 
help  to  sustain  their  circulation ;  but  they  have  not  undertaken 
to  attack  the  political  system  which  is  responsible  for  those 
rascalities;  they  have  neither  opposed  manhood  suffrage  nor 
exposed  its  sinister  operations;  they  have  never  published  one- 
fourth  of  the  available  details  of  the  rogueries  and  stupidities 
of  our  political  masters,  and  indeed,  why  should  they  publish 
more?  The  actually  published  scandals  are  quite  sufficient  to 
condemn  any  system  yet  the  public  makes  no  sign  of  revolt. 
Ephraim  is  wedded  to  his  idols;  let  him  alone.  The  news- 
papers cannot  afford  to  attack  popular  abuses.  They  depend 
for  their  circulation  on  the  favor  of  the  same  populace  which 
yearly  goes  like  silly  sheep  to  the  polling  place  bleating  its 
pride  at  being  driven  there  by  its  bosses,  and  their  advertising 
in  turn  depends  on  their  circulation*  No  single  newspaper  can 
afford  to  antagonize  at  once  the  uninstructed  populace  and  the 
powerful  class  of  politicians,  office  holders  and  political  leaders 
who  not  only  control  a  very  valuable  advertising  patronage  but 
include  among  themselves  nearly  all  the  public  speakers  in 
the  country  and  thus  possess  the  ear  of  the  masses. 

Nor  can  private  individuals,  however  wise  and  patriotic,  be 
expected  in  the  present  state  of  public  opinion  to  assail  a  sys- 
tem so  powerful  and  well  established.  It  is  in  fact  generally 


AMERICAN   TRADITIONS   FAVOR  RESTRICTED   SUFFRAGE      31 

assumed  that  manhood  suffrage  is  a  necessary  part  of  the 
American  policy,  that  its  overthrow  is  hopeless;  that  to  de- 
nounce it  would  be  to  court  unpopularity;  and  in  a  country 
at  once  democratic  and  commercial,  the  number  of  those  who 
dare  to  be  unpopular  is  extremely  few,  and  find  it  difficult  to 
obtain  even  a  hearing.  And  though  in  private  conversation 
people  frequently  criticise  governmental  incapacity,  and  say 
that  politics  is  rotten,  and  t^iat  politicians  and  office  holders 
are  corrupt,  they  seldom  or  never  go  as  far  as  to  question  the 
principle  of  manhood  suffrage,  but  seem  to  think  that  political 
corruption  and  incapacity  are  necessary  incidents  of  all  gov- 
ernment, or  at  least  of  all  democratic  government. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  doctrine  of  manhood  suffrage 
has  never  been  established  in  the  minds  of  the  American  peo- 
ple by  argument  or  discussion;  originally  adopted  without 
serious  reflection,  it  has  since  been  largely  taken  for  granted. 
It  is  curious  to  see  how  the  most  important  measures  may  be 
adopted  in  a  democratic  community  without  even  an  approach 
to  thorough  consideration  on  the  part  of  the  majority.  Take 
the  case  of  woman  suffrage  adopted  by  the  State  of  New  York 
in  1917;  only  a  small  proportion  of  the  men  of  the  State  had 
ever  seriously  considered  the  subject,  and  of  the  several  mil- 
lions of  women  of  the  State,  probably  not  more  than  ten  thou- 
sand really  concerned  themselves  about  it.  National  prohibi- 
tion of  the  use  of  alcoholic  beverages,  which  seemed  impossible 
in  1908,  was  enacted  in  1918  without  real  discussion  by  the 
electorate.  The  prohibition  vote  for  President  in  1916  was 
about  200,000  out  of  18,000,000,  or  a  little  more  than  one  per 
cent.  But  the  prohibitionists  were  in  bitter  earnest;  the  others 
were  careless  or  indifferent,  a  moment  favorable  to  prohibition 
came,  and  the  thing  was  done.  Something  like  this  is  the  story 
of  the  adoption  of  manhood  suffrage  in  New  York  and  the  other 
large  States;  while  it  was  being  adopted  the  majority  scarcely 
realized  what  was  going  on;  after  it  was  done  they  were  indif- 
ferent to  the  change  because  it  did  not  affect  their  daily  lives. 
Since  its  adoption  its  theory  has  been  very  little  discussed  by 


32        POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

the  American  people;  it  has  not  been  openly  attacked  or 
questioned  by  newspaper  or  political  orator  for  over  two  gen- 
erations; its  validity  is  usually  taken  as  a  matter  of  course; 
the  masses  are  not  even  aware  that  there  is  anything  question- 
able about  it;  and  but  one  American  writer,  Prof.  Hyslop 
of  New  York,  has  had  the  vision  to  see  its  enormity  and  the 
courage  and  patriotism  to  describe  it  in  print.  (Democracy.) 
His  powerful  book  was  never  replied  to  and  it  is  significant 
that  not  a  well  considered  argument  in  favor  of  manhood 
or  universal  suffrage  can  be  found  in  our  libraries.  Most  of 
what  has  been  printed  on  the  subject  is  mere  twaddle;  a  few 
authors  lacking  practical  experience  in  active  life,  such  as 
teachers  or  sociologists,  have  alluded  to  it  in  their  class  books 
or  political  treatises,  but  the  little  they  say  on  the  subject  is 
usually  confined  to  commonplace  laudation  of  political  liberty 
or  other  weak  sentimentalism  or  else  to  the  routine  conven- 
tional assumption  that  manhood  suffrage  is  what  they  call  in 
their  pretentious  slang  part  of  the  "advance  movement"  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

A  very  short  sketch  of  the  history  of  manhood  suffrage  in 
this  country  may  be  useful  here  as  a  preliminary  to  a  brief 
review  of  its  actual  operations.  Though  some  traces  of  a  belief 
in  the  abstract  right  of  all  men  to  vote  may  be  found  in  the 
England  of  the  middle  ages,  yet  our  English  ancestors  prior 
to  the  Protestant  Reformation  had,  generally  speaking,  no 
idea  of  a  vote  not  founded  on  property  or  on  such  a  recognized 
business  standing  as  might  give  an  assurance  of  stability  of  char- 
acter or  of  a  substantial  interest  in  the  affairs  of  the  community 
or  nation.  The  first  English  public  utterance  in  favor  of  man- 
hood suffrage  that  has  come  to  the  writer's  attention  was  made 
in  1647  by  some  of  the  sect  of  Congregationalists  or  Indepen- 
dents. That  body  was  divided  in  opinion  on  the  subject.  Those 
who  favored  it  were  called  "Levellers,"  and  in  so  doing  were 
opposed  by  the  other  Independents  as  well  as  by  the  Presby- 
terians, Catholics  and  Episcopalians.  The  Levellers  claimed 
that  the  right  to  vote  was  conferred  by  natural  law  upon  all 


AMERICAN   TRADITIONS   FAVOR  RESTRICTED   SUFFRAGE      33 

freemen.  Cromwell  and  Ireton  of  the  Puritan  leaders  opposed 
them,  and  insisted  that  no  man  had  a  right  to  vote  on  the 
affairs  of  the  country  or  the  choice  of  lawmakers  who  had  not 
a  property  or  a  business  interest;  saying  that  those  who  have 
"noe  interest  butt  the  interest  of  breathing"  should  have  no 
voice  in  elections. 

The  establishment  of  qualifications  for  voters  in  the  Ameri- 
can Colonies  during  the  Colonial  period  was  left  entirely  in  the 
hands  of  the  Colonies  themselves;  Great  Britain  not  interfering. 
The  first  colonists  were  without  any  settled  policy  on  the 
subject.  Massachusetts  had  a  religious  qualification  and  some 
of  the  Puritans  who  wished  to  establish  a  theocracy  or  a  church 
government  in  New  England  on  the  basis  of  the  Independent  or 
Congregational  polity  were  in  favor  of  making  church  member- 
ship the  only  qualification.  The  first  settlers  being  without 
holdings  in  the  colony,  probably  dispensed  with  a  property 
qualification  at  first  or  waived  it  as  impracticable.  But  very 
soon  it  was  decided  that  only  those  having  an  interest  in  the 
colony  should  have  a  voice  in  its  affairs;  and  the  rule  of  a 
property  qualification  for  voters  was  speedily  established  in  all 
the  colonies;  in  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire  and  Connecti- 
cut in  1630;  in  Rhode  Island  in  1658;  in  New  Jersey  in  1665 
and  North  Carolina  in  1663;  in  Maryland  and  in  Virginia  in 
1670;  in  Pennsylvania  in  1682;  in  South  Carolina  in  1692;  in 
New  York  about  1701;  in  Delaware  1734;  and  in  Georgia  in 
1761.  In  five  colonies,  namely,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut, 
Maryland,  Delaware  and  Pennsylvania,  the  property  held 
might  be  either  real  or  personal;  in  all  the  others  it  was  re- 
quired to  be  land.  Some  American  theorists  at  the  time  of 
the  Revolution  held  a  belief  or  a  half  belief  in  manhood  suf- 
frage but  they  were  few  in  number.  In  certain  political  dec- 
larations published  not  long  prior  to  1776  we  find  propositions 
that  all  men  are  naturally  entitled  to  vote,  while  in  others  a 
suffrage  qualification  is  suggested.  But  by  the  time  the  Revo- 
lution arrived  the  doctrine  of  manhood  suffrage  had  practically 
disappeared  from  the  colonies;  and  the  practice  of  putting  in 


34       POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE  UNITED   STATES 

office  only  the  most  prominent  and  best  equipped  was  uni- 
versal and  apparently  universally  accepted. 

The  success  of  the  Revolution  in  no  way  affected  the  suf- 
frage. It  had  not  been  a  democratic  movement  nor  intended  as 
such.  At  first  it  was  designed  to  merely  curtail  without 
actually  terminating  British  interference  in  American  affairs; 
later  as  the  estrangement  increased  it  was  determined  to  en- 
tirely get  rid  of  British  rule.  But  the  Revolution  was  in  spirit  a 
conservative  movement,  whereby  it  was  not  intended  to  inter- 
fere with  existing  colonial  laws  relating  to  suffrage  nor  to  alter 
the  political  or  social  structure  of  society  nor  to  materially 
change  aught  in  government  beyond  terminating  the  British 
connection.  In  this  respect  it  materially  differed  from  the 
French  Revolution  which  developed  into  an  attempt  to  com- 
pletely reorganize  the  social  and  political  fabrics.  The  Ameri- 
can revolutionists  were  well  satisfied  with  their  local  laws  and 
customs,  and  the  separation  from  Great  Britain  once  accom- 
plished, the  conservative  policy  adopted  at  the  beginning  of  the 
struggle  still  continued  till  the  generation  which  had  carried 
through  the  Revolution  had  finally  passed  away. 

The  Declaration  of  Independence  has  nothing  to  say  about 
the  right  of  suffrage.  Although  composed  by  Jefferson,  who 
was  influenced  by  the  sentimentalities  of  the  French  theorists 
of  the  time  it  contains  only  two  brief  statements  which  can 
possibly  be  quoted  as  favoring  the  principle  of  manhood  suf- 
frage. One  is  "that  all  men  are  created  equal."  This  state- 
ment could  not  have  been  intended  to  be  understood  without 
qualification  because  it  is  notoriously  false.  Men  are  not  cre- 
ated equal  either  in  size,  health,  affections,  virtues,  social 
station,  capacity,  prospects  in  life,  opportunities,  nor  in  any- 
thing else.  In  his  own  country  thousands  were  then  held  in 
bondage,  some  by  Jefferson  himself,  and  a  considerable  part 
of  the  colonial  population  were  without  political  rights.  He 
could  not  therefore  have  even  meant  that  all  men  were  en- 
titled to  be  considered  as  politically  equal  unless  he  intended 
merely  to  express  a  private  opinion  of  his  own.  Public  opinion 


AMERICAN   TRADITIONS   FAVOR  RESTRICTED   SUFFRAGE      35 

as  expressed  in  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  time  was  exactly 
to  the  contrary.  The  other  statement  of  the  Declaration  that 
governments  "derive  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed,"  is  equally  absurd,  if  applied  to  individuals.  It  may 
be  that  a  government  is  a  usurper  if  it  exists  in  defiance  of 
society  at  large,  but  it  may  properly  dispense  with  the  consent 
of  an  unlimited  number  of  the  individuals  whom  it  governs. 
It  cannot  be  supposed  that  Jefferson  and  his  associates  intended 
to  imply  that  none  of  the  governmental  powers  on  the  earth  in- 
cluding those  of  the  colonies  themselves  were  just;  yet  none  of 
them  derived  their  powers  from  the  consent  of  all  those  under 
their  authority.  Most  of  the  colonies  were  founded  on  charters 
granted  by  the  British  crown.  The  consent  of  the  native  In- 
dians, of  aliens,  women,  minors,  negroes  and  the  unpropertied 
class  had  not  been  given  to  any  government  in  this  country, 
nor  was  it  proposed  at  that  time  that  any  such  consent  should 
be  asked  for.  More  than  this,  neither  Jefferson  nor  any  one  else 
proposed  that  the  consent  of  the  minority  at  any  election, 
even  were  it  forty-nine  per  cent  of  the  whole,  should  be  re- 
quired to  establish  the  new  government.  The  most  that  Jeffer- 
son pretended  to  mean  by  these  fine  phrases  was  to  claim  that 
a  majority  of  the  qualified  voters  of  the  colonies  should  govern 
the  country  through  their  representatives  duly  elected.  But 
in  practice  even  this  was  a  sham;  the  Revolutionists  were  prob- 
ably in  a  minority  of  from  one-fifth  to  a  third  of  the  whole 
people;  they  never  troubled  themselves  to  obtain  the  consent 
of  the  Tories  or  the  indifferent;  and  what  Jefferson  really  in- 
tended was  to  get  his  faction  together  on  the  basis  of  that  Dec- 
laration as  a  party  platform,  to  fight  for  the  result  and  to  beat 
or  intimidate  the  majority  into  subjection  or  acquiescence. 
This  is  what  was  actually  done;  both  sides  resorted  to  force, 
the  neutrals  were  silenced,  and  the  Americans  of  tory  prin- 
ciples were  soon  taught  to  their  sorrow  that  Jefferson  and  his 
associates  intended  to  govern  them  with  or  without  their  con- 
sent and  pretty  harshly  at  that.  No  vote  was  ever  taken  on 
the  question  of  separation  from  Great  Britain,  and  the  con- 


36       POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

sent  of  the  objectors  to  what  was  done  was  rendered  unneces- 
sary by  the  efficient  process  of  killing  them  or  driving  them  into 
exile  and  confiscating  their  property. 

The  Revolution  therefore  was  not  the  establishment  of  the 
rule  of  the  majority  in  numbers,  but  of  the  sway  of  those  quali- 
fied to  govern,  because  the  strongest,  the  most  daring  and  the 
most  fortunate.  And  the  property  qualification  principle  also 
assuring  the  rule  of  those  believed  to  be  the  best  qualified  to 
govern  was  in  force  in  every  one  of  the  thirteen  states  at  and 
immediately  after  the  Revolution  by  the  will  of  the  colonists 
themselves.  Voters'  qualifications  varied  in  different  States, 
but  in  all  there  was  some  kind  of  a  property  qualification.  In 
some  the  actual  ownership  of  real  property  was  required;  in 
others  a  voter  was  required  either  to  pay  a  property  tax,  to  lease 
real  property  or  to  have  a  substantial  yearly  income.  The 
payment  of  direct  taxes  in  some  form  or  other  was  in  the 
minds  of  the  founders  of  the  American  republic  an  essential 
qualification  of  the  voter.  The  revolt  against  Great  Britain 
had  been  generally  and  publicly  defended  on  the  theory 
of  no  taxation  without  representation ;  and  the  converse  of  this 
principle  was  popularly  assumed,  namely,  that  there  should 
be  no  representation  without  taxation;  in  other  words,  that 
no  man  should  be  permitted  to  aid  in  shaping  the  policy  of  the 
country  who  did  not  directly  contribute  to  the  expense  of  its 
government,  or,  in  the  language  of  the  time,  "who  had  not  a 
" stake  in  the  country."  For  example,  Virginia  from  1670  re- 
stricted the  suffrage  "to  such  as  by  their  estates,  real  or  per- 
"sonal,  have  interest  enough  to  tye  them  to  the  endeavor  of  the 
"public  good,"  and  later  excluded  all  but  freeholders.  In  the 
Virginia  Bill  of  Rights  of  June  12,  1776,  the  statement  is 
"That  all  men,  having  sufficient  evidence  of  permanent  com- 
"mon  interest  with,  and  attachment  to  the  community  have 
"the  right  of  suffrage."  In  New  Haven  in  1784,  out  of  about 
600  adult  males,  only  343  were  qualified  to  be  freemen  and 
vote  for  the  mayor,  who  being  once  elected  held  his  office  during 
the  pleasure  of  the  General  Assembly  which  usually  meant 


AMERICAN   TRADITIONS   FAVOR  RESTRICTED   SUFFRAGE      37 

for  life.  (Levermore,  New  Haven.)  The  payment  of  taxes  and 
the  right  to  representation  were  so  much  united  in  the  public 
mind  at  that  time  that  in  some  states,  for  instance  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  New  Hampshire,  the  number  of  senators  was 
apportioned  among  the  counties  according  to  the  amount  of 
taxation  paid  and  not  according  to  the  population.  Within 
the  State  of  New  York,  representation  was  granted  not  accord- 
ing to  the  number  of  inhabitants,  but  to  that  of  actual  voters; 
in  other  words,  of  propertied  citizens.  When  the  word  "peo- 
ple" was  used  in  public  documents  what  was  really  meant  was 
the  citizens  or  voters  of  the  State. 

In  those  days  the  obscure  and  ignorant  political  adven- 
turers who  now  adorn  our  legislative  halls,  had  no  chance  of 
getting  themselves  into  the  seats  of  the  mighty,  or  their  raven- 
ous fingers  into  the  public  purse.  As  for  judicial  and  admin- 
istrative officers  their  selection  was  entirely  withdrawn  from 
the  electorate.  Our  colonial  and  revolutionary  ancestors  be- 
lieved that  the  members  of  the  State  Legislature  who  were  per- 
sonally acquainted  with  the  candidates  for  high  office  were  bet- 
ter able  to  select  them  than  the  mass  of  voters  who  only  knew 
them  by  sight  or  reputation.  The  electorate  might  only  choose 
the  legislature,  and  that  body  usually  elected  the  governor 
and  appointed  and  removed  judges,  justices  of  the  peace, 
sheriffs,  and  other  administrative  officers.  The  voters  chose 
the  men  who  made  the  laws,  but  not  the  officials  charged  with 
their  interpretation  and  execution;  and  the  actual  admin- 
istration of  government  was  so  arranged  for  that  honest,  com- 
petent and  responsible  agents  might  be  employed  therein  and 
was  as  far  removed  from  the  people  as  was  conveniently 
possible. 

Therefore  the  popular  belief  that  the  founders  of  our  gov- 
ernment believed  in  a  democracy  of  numbers  is  a  mistaken  one. 
They  maintained  that  both  official  and  voter  should  be  quali- 
fied men  and  they  saw  to  it  that  they  were  such.  And  look 
at  the  result;  the  ablest  and  best  men  were  put  forward.  Every 
nation  has  superior,  mediocre,  and  inferior  men;  the  latter 


38       POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE  UNITED   STATES 

being  often  the  most  greedy  for  office.  One  of  the  tests  of 
a  system  of  government  is  which  of  these  classes  it  brings  to 
the  political  front.  Judged  by  this,  the  old  colonial  and  revolu- 
tionary system  was  far  superior  to  the  present  one.  It  put  in 
power  and  kept  there,  Washington,  Madison,  Franklin,  Hamil- 
ton, the  Adamses,  Jefferson,  and  a  number  of  their  subordi- 
nates of  great  superiority  to  men  in  corresponding  places 
in  the  present  days  of  manhood  and  female  suffrage.  By  their 
fruits  you  may  know  them.  It  is  probable  that  the  female 
suffragists  firmly  believe  that  their  shallow  platform  ranters 
are  superior  to  anything  that  earth  can  show;  but  with  that 
exception  no  one  will  pretend  that  the  present  day  methods 
have  produced  or  can  produce  for  the  public  service  the  equal 
of  that  revolutionary  stock.  Indeed  we  have  more  reason 
than  some  of  us  fully  realize  to  be  thankful  that  the  govern- 
ing class  of  that  time  in  this  country  were  men  of  substance; 
for  the  opposition  to  the  proposed  Federal  Constitution  in  1788 
was  very  strong  among  the  poorer  classes;  and  it  is  consid- 
ered certain  by  those  who  have  looked  carefully  into  the  matter 
that  had  that  instrument  been  at  that  time  submitted  to  a 
vote  based  on  manhood  suffrage  it  would  have  been  overwhelm- 
ingly defeated.  This  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  since  lack  of 
experience  in  dealing  with  any  but  the  simplest  matters  left 
those  people  incapable  of  understanding  the  provisions  of  the 
constitution  or  of  realizing  its  beneficent  import.  One  can 
hardly  imagine  what  that  defeat  would  have  cost  to  mankind; 
the  deplorable  results  of  the  indefinite  postponement  of  the 
American  Union  with  all  its  blessings  of  peace  and  prosperity, 
and  the  perpetuation  here  on  this  continent  of  the  tariffs, 
strifes,  petty  wars  and  tyrannies  of  Europe  and  South  America. 
When  one  tries  to  imagine  the  world  without  the  United  States 
of  America  as  a  beneficent  enlightening  force,  one  is  appalled 
at  the  bare  possibility  that  such  a  calamity  might  have  been 
allowed  to  fall  upon  the  world;  and  yet  it  was  possible  had  it 
not  been  that  Hamilton,  Washington  and  the  other  leaders  in 
that  business  were  eighteenth  century  statesmen,  staunch,  effi- 


AMERICAN  TRADITIONS  FAVOR  RESTRICTED  SUFFRAGE      39 

cient  and  determined,  and  not  a  bunch  of  twentieth  cen- 
tury cowardly,  spineless,  brainless,  heartless  politicians,  the 
product  of  machine  and  boss  rule,  such  as  would  probably 
be  in  charge  of  any  similar  movement  in  the  present  year  of 
grace,  1920. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE  SUFFRAGE  IS  NOT  A  NATURAL  RIGHT  BUT  A  FUNCTION 
OF  GOVERNMENT  AND  MAY  THEREFORE  PROPERLY  BE 
RESTRICTED  TO  THOSE  COMPETENT  TO  EXERCISE  IT. 

THOSE  citizens  who  think  that  they  have  or  anybody  has 
or  can  have  a  natural  right  to  vote  are  absolutely  mistaken. 
There  is  a  general  impression  that  such  a  right  exists,  created 
partly  by  the  twaddlers  who  write  on  politics  for  schools  and 
colleges;  but  it  is  a  false  one,  and  it  is  seriously  misleading, 
because  it  negatives  in  advance  all  effort  to  elevate  the  standard 
of  the  electorate  by  excluding  the  notoriously  unfit  from  its 
membership.  The  citizen  votes  not  in  the  exercise  of  a  right 
or  a  privilege,  but  in  performance  of  a  governmental  function, 
involving  the  execution  of  a  trust  which  should  be  confined  to 
those  competent  to  exercise  it. 

Political  voting  for  candidates  for  office  is  part  of  the  process 
of  the  creation  of  a  governing  power,  and  it  is  itself  an  act, 
part  and  function  of  government;  by  it  the  voter  declares  his 
judgment  as  well  as  proposes  agents  or  representatives  to  enact 
and  to  execute  the  law.  1  Society  therefore  has  a  right  to  regu- 
late its  exercise,  and  to  see  that  it  is  entrusted  into  proper  and 
competent  handsj  This  theory  of  the  right  of  Society  or 
'the  State  to  control  and  limit  the  suffrage  has  been  adopted 
not  only  by  European  nations  in  dealing  with  inferior  races 
but  also  by  ourselves  at  home.  We  do  not  for  instance  permit 
the  Chinese  to  vote;  we  exclude  from  the  suffrage  youths 
under  twenty-one  years  of  age  and  unnaturalized  aliens,  not- 
withstanding that  they  may  pay  large  amounts  in  taxes  and  be 
perfectly  honorable  and  well  meaning  members  of  the  com- 
munity; also  tramps,  paupers  and  the  insane.  So  the  policy 

40 


THE   SUFFRAGE   NOT  A   NATURAL   RIGHT  41 

of  excluding  the  colored  race  from  full  participation  in  the 
government  of  the  country  is  thoroughly  established  in  the 
United  States.  Negroes  are  not  actually  allowed  to  vote 
except  where  they  are  in  a  safe  minority.  In  the  States  of 
California,  Delaware,  Georgia,  Louisiana,  North  Carolina, 
South  Carolina,  Oklahoma,  Washington  and  Wyoming  there 
is  a  nominal  educational  qualification  by  which  at  least  a  pre- 
tence has  been  made  of  excluding  ignorant  whites  from  the 
franchise,  and  which  has  been  effectively  used  in  some  of  these 
States  to  exclude  thousands  of  colored  voters.  The  suffrage 
has  been  denied  to  non-taxpaying  Indians  in  all  parts  of  the 
United  States,  notwithstanding  that  many  of  them  may  be 
decent  and  intelligent  people.  One  Northern  State,  New 
Hampshire,  and  eleven  Southern  States  make  payment  of  a  poll 
tax  a  necessary  prerequisite  to  voting.  A  certain  period  of  pre- 
liminary residence  is  prescribed  in  all  the  States.  In  thirty- 
eight  states  a  previous  registration  is  required;  and  this  pro- 
vision every  year  disfranchises  thousands  of  travelling  sales- 
men and  others.  Thirty- two  States  exclude  women  from  all 
or  specified  elections,  and  though  the  expediency  of  this 
exclusion  has  been  seriously  challenged,  the  right  to  enact  it  is 
unquestioned  by  most  people. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  in  the  American  polity  the  principle 
is  practically  well  recognized  that  voting  is  not  a  natural  right 
but  a  function  of  government  which  may  properly  be  restricted, 
either  to  property  holders  as  in  fact  it  was  by  our  ancestors 
restricted,  or  to  any  other  class  as  the  State  may  ordain.  There 
is,  however,  reason  to  believe  that  the  general  public  has  not 
reflected  enough  on  the  subject  to  assimilate  or  even  to  accept 
this  proposition.  The  American  masses  take  most  of  their  so- 
called  opinions  ready  made,  and  as  far  as  any  popular  theory 
upon  the  subject  or  conception  thereof  is  to  be  found  among 
them,  it  is  apparently  a  vague  loose  notion  of  a  natural  equality 
among  men;  an  understanding  that  it  is  part  of  the  original 
American  tradition  that  every  man  has  an  equal  natural  right 
to  take  part  in  government  or  at  least  to  "express  himself"  by 


42       POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

his  vote.  We  have  seen  in  the  last  chapter  that  the  original 
American  tradition  is  just  to  the  contrary,  and  demands  a 
substantial  property  qualification  for  all  voters.  In  a  subse- 
quent chapter  it  will  appear  how  that  original  American  tra- 
dition was  foolishly  and  thoughtlessly  abandoned,  when  man- 
hood suffrage  and  the  spoils  system  were  together  foisted  upon 
us  in  the  time  of  Andrew  Jackson. 

As  already  stated,  an  examination  of  the  libraries  does 
not  disclose  any  strong  authority  or  well  reasoned  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  the  practice  of  giving  a  vote  to  every 
adult  man  or  woman.  The  doctrine  of  the  natural 
right  to  vote  which  was  first  practised  by  the  French 
radicals  of  the  eighteenth  century  appears  to  have  been 
accepted  as  a  piece  of  popular  sentimentality;  apparently  it 
has  not  been  adopted  by  any  great  thinker  or  writer.  Those 
writers  who  favor  it  are  generally  superficialists,  and  are 
content  to  refer  to  it  vaguely  as  a  step  in  the  progress  of  the 
age  without  any  close  examination  of  its  merits.  As  for  the 
theories  of  natural  equality  between  men,  and  of  the  right  to 
vote  as  a  means  of  self  expression  neither  of  them  will  stand 
a  moment's  serious  reflection.  No  equality  of  any  kind  what- 
soever exists  or  ever  can  exist  between  men.  It  is  impossible 
even  to  imagine  a  tolerable  existence  under  the  crushing 
weight  of  the  monotony  of  equality.  Along  with  variety 
would  perish  love,  hope  and  joy;  ambition,  the  great 
source  of  initiative  and  the  most  powerful  stimulus  to 
effort  would  be  destroyed;  life  would  lose  its  picturesqueness, 
and  instead  of  a  bright  running  stream  it  would  become  a 
stagnant  pool.  Equality  means  death;  its  domain  is  the  ceme- 
tery. The  champions  of  manhood  suffrage  therefore  will  have 
to  look  elsewhere  for  its  justification  than  in  an  assertion  of 
an  equality  which  cannot  exist. 

But  we  will  be  told  that  there  is  an  "equality  of  rights." 
Here  is  another  absurd  phrase,  which  as  generally  applied  is 
false  or  meaningless.  By  equality  of  rights  people  generally 
refer  to  personal  rights  such  as  the  right  to  life,  to  personal 


THE   SUFFRAGE   NOT   A   NATURAL   RIGHT  43 

liberty,  etc.  But  there  is  no  point  of  resemblance,  no  analogy 
even,  between  the  character  of  such  a  right  and  of  the  asserted 
right  to  suffrage.  The  latter  is  a  claim  to  share  with  others, 
and  therefore  acquired  and  artificial.  The  right  of  a  man 
to  his  life,  however,  is  not  one  in  which  others  can  share;  and 
all  natural  rights  are  of  the  same  general  character,  absolute, 
strictly  personal  and  exclusive.  The  claim  to  vote  rests  on  an 
entirely  different  basis  from  such;  it  is  social,  and  involves 
others  and  the  rights  of  others,  it  is  a  claim  to  govern;  it 
vitally  affects  every  one  else  and  therefore  no  man  can  assert 
it  without  the  others  being  consulted,  since  to  do  so  would  in- 
fringe upon  their  social  rights.  No  such  right  can  possibly  be 
an  original  or  natural  right;  for  natural  rights  are  of  course 
common  to  all  men;  and  the  absurdity  of  every  man  having 
the  natural  right  to  impose  his  will  upon  another  man  is  mani- 
fest. To  say  that  there  exists  a  natural  right  common  to 
all  men  involving  power  over  others,  or  that  one  man  has  a 
natural  right  to  interfere  with  the  actions  of  others,  or  of  a 
society  formed  of  others,  or  a  natural  right  whose  exercise  by 
some  would  deprive  other  men  of  their  own  similar  rights  is 
nonsense;  since  these  last  would  have  the  same  power  over 
the  first  and  the  result  would  be  chaos.  Such  a  proposition 
involves  a  complete  contradiction  of  itself,  and  an  impossibility. 

Society  and  political  organizations  are  artificially  created, 
and  all  rights  under  them  are  artificially  acquired.  The  result 
of  the  exercise  of  some  power,  or  founded  upon  an  agreement 
of  some  kind,  express  or  implied,  they  are  in  the  nature  of 
gifts  or  functions  conferred  by  society  upon  the  individual.  Of 
this  character  is  the  voting  franchise.  There  can  be  no  natural 
right  to  the  control  of  society  or  even  to  take  part  in  society 
against  its  will,  both  of  which  as  social  and  legal,  not  natural 
rights,  are  asserted  and  employed  by  every  voter.  The  only 
natural  right  that  a  man  can  have  towards  society  is  to  escape 
from  it  altogether  to  a  place  not  occupied  by  other  men. 

These  considerations  dispose  of  the  sentimental  twaddle 
uttered  sometimes  by  shallow  magazine  writers  and  unsophisti- 


44       POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

cated  college  professors  that  every  man  has  a  natural  right  to 
what  they  call  "political  self  expression."  Self  expression  by 
political  voting  always  involves  in  some  way  the  exercise  of 
power  over  others;  and  no  one  can  have  a  natural  right  to 
such  power. 

The  above  reasoning  applies  of  course  to  the  exercise  of  the 
voting  power  where  it  affects  the  property  of  others  as  well 
as  where  it  directly  affects  only  the  person.  No  man  can  have 
a  natural  right  to  dispose  of  another's  property  or  any  part  of 
it  by  voting  or  otherwise.  To  talk  of  a  natural  right  to  vote 
away  another  man's  property  is  downright  nonsense.  Imagine 
a  small  independent  island  inhabited  by  one  hundred  families 
each  with  property  honestly  acquired.  Would  an  immigrant 
body  of  five  hundred  have  a  natural  right  by  a  vote  to  con- 
fiscate this  property?  The  proposition  is  monstrous,  yet  it  is 
all  implied  in  the  theory  of  a  natural  right  to  vote. 

Our  Courts  and  Judges  have  never  held  suffrage  to  be  a 
natural  right,  and  it  has  never  been  treated  as  such  in  our 
legislation.  Marshall,  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States,  says: 
"The  granting  of  the  franchise  has  always  been  regarded  in  the 
"practice  of  nations  as  a  matter  of  expediency  and  not  as  an  in- 
"herent  right."  And  Judge  Cooley:  "Suffrage  cannot  be  the 
"natural  right  of  the  individual  because  it  does  not  exist  for  the 
"benefit  of  the  individual  but  for  the  benefit  of  the  State  itself." 
(Principles  of  Constitutional  Law,  p.  249.)  So  on  our  statute 
books  voting  is  not  treated  as  a  natural  right,  nor  is  the  citizen 
mass  considered  as  the  supreme  power  in  the  state;  but  the 
constitution  and  functions  of  the  electorate  are  created  and 
determined  by  the  legislative  body,  or  under  its  direction,  and 
its  capacity  is  fixed  by  law  and  derived  from  the  law  just  as 
truly  as  that  of  any  other  body  exercising  political  powers  in 
the  government. 

If  suffrage  were  a  natural  right,  the  voter  might  exercise  it 
to  please  himself  or  solely  for  his  own  interest.  But  nobody 
pretends  that  this  is  the  case.  It  is  conceded  that  the  function 
of  the  voter  is  not  to  gratify  himself  nor  to  practise  experi- 


THE   SUFFRAGE   NOT   A   NATURAL   RIGHT  45 

ments,  nor  to  express  his  own  personal  ideas,  nor  primarily 
nor  mainly  to  foster  his  own  interests  or  those  of  his  class,  but 
to  propose  the  best  men  and  measures  for  the  country  at  large. 
He  is  not  to  seek  direct  personal  benefit  or  gain  by  his  vote 
but  is  expected  thereby  to  contribute  his  opinion,  his  wisdom, 
his  experience,  to  the  promotion  of  the  general  welfare.  He 
is  not  to  vote  for  a  judge  because  he  expects  him  to  decide  a 
lawsuit  in  his  favor;  nor  for  a  congressman  because  he  hopes 
that  he  will  help  to  secure  him  a  contract  or  a  pension  or  a 
tariff  rate  favorable  to  his  business;  but  it  is  his  duty  to  vote 
for  judges  and  congressmen  who  will  decide  and  legislate 
justly,  that  is,  with  due  regard  for  all.  This  makes  it  clear  that 
the  franchise  is  not  a  gift  of  nature,  but  a  trust  or  function 
created  by  society  for  its  own  high  purposes;  that  the  voter 
comes  to  the  polls  to  take  part  in  that  function  not  as  a  master 
but  as  a  servant  of  the  State  in  obedience  to  her  mandate;  and 
must  be  clad  with  such  qualifications  as  she  prescribes.  The 
voters  are  not  masters  or  rulers  as  is  so  often  erroneously  said, 
they  are  merely  called  upon  to  designate  the  real  rulers  and 
masters  of  the  land.  When  the  citizen  approaches  the  polls 
on  election  day  he  there  finds  in  operation  a  formidable  elec- 
toral machine  which  he  is  sometimes  told  is  a  contrivance 
whose  object  is  to  establish  the  rule  of  the  people.  But  this  is 
a  superficial  understanding  of  the  matter;  the  people  cannot 
possibly  rule  themselves;  the  existence  of  any  rule  whatever 
implies  rulers  as  well  as  those  ruled  over;  to  talk  of  the  people 
ruling  is  nonsense,  or  at  best  a  mere  figure  of  speech  to  indi- 
cate that  they  have  a  choice  of  rulers.  Here  as  elsewhere  there 
is  and  must  be  a  government  ruling  by  force;  here  as  else- 
where that  government  is  a  human  machine  wielding  or  in- 
tended to  wield  irresistible  power  over  its  subjects,  and  con- 
stantly menacing  the  disobedient  with  deprivation  of  prop- 
erty, liberty  and  life.  Our  elective  system  is  really  a  means  for 
sustaining  this  tremendous  apparatus  and  of  keeping  it  in 
operation  and  effective.  It  is  that  all  powerful  governmental 
organism  and  not  the  people  which  rules  the  country.  Every 


46       POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

American  is  just  as  much  under  the  control  of  the  authority 
thus  created  as  the  subject  of  any  ruler  whatever.  Freedom  in 
the  sense  of  liberty  to  the  individual  to  thwart  or  neglect  gov- 
ernmental authority  is  not  within  the  American  scheme.  This 
is  why  resident  foreigners,  deceived  by  the  silly  newspaper 
cant  about  the  "people"  ruling  are  frequently  surprised  to 
find  themselves  more  restricted  in  some  respects  than  they 
were  in  their  own  native  monarchical  countries. 

This  view  of  the  matter  whereby  it  appears  that  an  election 
is  the  first  step  in  the  process  of  the  creation  of  a  government 
requires  the  manhood  suffrage  question  to  be  presented  in  a 
different  form  from  the  usual  one  which  is,  "Has  a  man  as 
such  a  right  to  vote?"  He  has  no  such  inherent  or  natural 
right,  and  the  real  question  is  whether  he  is  of  the  proper 
material  for  use  in  the  first  process  of  democratic  government 
making.  It  follows  too  that  the  burden  is  on  the  would-be 
voter  to  show  that  he  is  fit  for  that  purpose.  The  mere  fact 
that  he  is  a  dweller  in  the  land  cannot  possibly  confer  upon  him 
the  right  to  inject  poor  material  into  the  government-making 
process,  any  more  than  one  of  a  number  interested  in  a  cider 
press  would  have  the  right  to  insist  on  putting  decayed  apples 
into  the  hopper. 

But  even  if  there  was  a  natural  right  to  vote  Society  would 
'still  have  the  power  to  regulate  its  exercise  and  to  establish  con- 
ditions thereof.  Certainly  Society  would  have  the  right  to 
prohibit  that  exercise  and  it  would  be  its  duty  to  do  so  when 
the  same  would  operate  against  the  welfare  of  the  community 
at  large;  or  against  the  welfare  of  every  other  person  in  it 
except  the  voter  himself;  or  even  against  the  welfare  of  the 
majority  of  the  citizens  of  the  community.  A  man  can  no  more 
have  a  natural  right  to  injure  his  neighbor  by  his  vote  than 
by  any  other  means;  and  just  as  he  is  free  to  use  his  personal 
liberty  only  to  the  extent  to  which  his  actions  are  harmless 
or  beneficial  to  the  community,  so  as  a  matter  of  natural  right 
he  should  be  only  free  to  vote  or  legislate  and  take  part  in  gov- 
ernment affairs,  great  or  small,  to  the  extent  to  which  his 


THE   SUFFRAGE   NOT   A   NATURAL   RIGHT  47 

acts  in  that  capacity  are  harmless  or  beneficial.  In  any  aspect 
of  the  matter  therefore  Society  has  the  right  to  limit  the  suf- 
frage to  such  as  are  likely  to  exercise  it  for  the  benefit  of 
the  commonwealth. 

Thus  by  disposing  of  the  vague  idea  of  a  natural  right  to 
vote,  the  way  is  cleared  for  a  consideration  of  the  proper  quali- 
fications which  Society  should  require  from  voters.  That  there 
are  men  and  classes  of  men  naturally  incapable  of  exercising 
the  judgment  necessary  to  cast  a  ballot  helpful  to  the  com- 
munity is  known  to  all  of  us.  Says  Amiel  in  his  Journal: 

"The  pretension  that  every  man  has  the  necessary  qualities 
"of  a  citizen  simply  because  he  was  born  twenty-one  years  ago, 
"is  as  much  as  to  say  that  labor,  merit,  virtue,  character  and 
"experience  are  to  count  for  nothing." 

Not  only  has  the  country  the  right  to  exclude  incapables  from 
the  suffrage,  but  it  is  the  patriotic  duty  of  the  good  citizen  to 
place  a  voluntary  limitation  on  himself,  and  to  refrain  alto- 
gether from  voting  where  through  ignorance  of  the  candidates 
or  subject  matter  his  vote  cannot  be  intelligently  cast.  For, 
just  as  the  voter  is  peremptorily  called  upon  in  casting  his 
vote  to  disregard  entirely  his  own  interest  and  pleasure,  and 
even  to  vote  contrary  to  his  interests  and  prejudices  for  the 
benefit  of  his  country,  so  surely  he  can  also  be  required  in  the 
public  interest  to  surrender  his  privilege  of  voting,  to  remain 
altogether  silent,  and  to  allow  the  choice  of  men  and  measures 
to  be  made  by  his  more  intelligent  neighbors.  And  it  further 
follows,  that  where  the  ignorant  voter  knowingly  and  wilfully 
insists  upon  expressing  his  own  opinion  or  prejudice  at  the 
polls  in  opposition  to  the  judgment  of  another  better  qualified 
than  he,  his  act  is  immoral  and  unpatriotic;  and  equally  im- 
moral and  unpatriotic  is  the  conduct  of  the  legislator,  writer  or 
voter  who  knowingly  countenances  or  assists  in  the  enfran- 
chisement of  a  class  of  people  who  are  incompetent  to  vote 
on  the  questions  to  be  presented  to  them,  or  to  select  the 
proper  candidates  for  public  offices. 

Voting  at  a  political  election  being  an  act  of  government, 


48       POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

the  proper  test  of  the  voter  is  that  of  capacity  to  govern.    As 
Bagehot  puts  it: — 

"Fitness  to  govern  must  depend  on  the  community  to  be  governed 
and  on  the  merits  of  other  persons  who  may  be  capable  of  govern- 
ing that  community.  A  savage  chief  may  be  capable  of  governing 
a  savage  tribe.  He  may  have  the  right  of  governing  it,  for  he  may 
be  the  sole  person  capable  of  so  doing:  but  he  would  have  no  right 
to  govern  England.  Whatever  may  be  your  capacity  for  rule,  you 
have  no  right  to  obtain  the  opportunity  of  exercising  it  by  de- 
throning a  person  who  is  more  capable;  you  are  wronging  the  com- 
munity if  you  do,  if  you  are  der  riving  it  of  a  better  government 
than  that  which  you  can  give  to  it.  ...  The  true  principle  is, 
that  every  person  has  a  right  to  so  much  political  power  as  he  can 
exercise,  without  impeding  any  other  person  who  would  more  fitly 
exercise  such  power.  .  .  .  Any  such  measure  for  enfranchising  the 
lower  orders  as  would  overpower  and  consequently  disfranchise  the 
higher  should  be  resisted  on  the  ground  of  abstract  right;  you  are 
proposing  to  take  power  from  those  who  have  the  superior  capacity, 
and  to  rest  it  in  those  who  have  but  an  inferior  capacity  or  in  many 
cases  no  capacity  at  all."  (Parliamentary  Reform,  1859.) 

In  calling  to  its  counsels  at  the  polls  such  citizens  as  the 
State  may  deem  competent  for  that  purpose,  it  is  practically 
impossible  to  select  individuals ;  but  it  is  quite  possible  to  desig- 
nate certain  classes  to  whom  suffrage  may  or  may  not  be  per- 
mitted; and  when  these  classes  are  open  to  receive  accessions 
indefinitely  upon  conditions  useful  to  the  State  and  attainable 
by  all,  there  is  nothing  in  the  whole  transaction  inimical  to  the 
best  democracy,  or  of  which  complaint  can  be  made  on  the 
ground  of  monopoly  or  injustice.  The  acquisition  and  judi- 
cious management  of  a  reasonable  amount  of  property  are 
terms  and  conditions  of  just  this  character  and  experience 
has  amply  shown  the  necessity  for  their  imposition  in  the  inter- 
ests of  society. 

To  summarize  this  branch  of  the  subject.  The  primary 
object  of  an  ideal  election  is  not  to  ascertain  where  lies  the  in- 
terest or  to  gratify  the  caprices  or  whims  of  individuals,  but 


THE   SUFFRAGE   NOT   A   NATURAL   RIGHT  49 

to  continue  and  sustain,  and  if  necessary  to  create  the  govern- 
ment of  the  country.  The  exercise  of  this  function  is  in  itself 
an  act  of  government  or  in  aid  of  government,  and  the  privi- 
lege of  participation  therein  is  an  acquired,  a  conferred  author- 
ity or  function,  not  a  natural  right,  and  should  be  bestowed 
solely  for  merit  or  capacity  to  be  exercised  in  trust  for  the 
common  benefit.  It  is  the  patriotic  duty  of  all  incapable,  un- 
prepared or  unqualified  citizens  voluntarily  to  refrain  from 
taking  part  in  this  function;  and  it  is  the  right  and  duty  of  the 
State  by  appropriate  legislation  to  exclude  peremptorily  there- 
from all  classes  of  men  incapable  of  its  proper  exercise,  and  for 
this  purpose  to  establish  racial,  property,  educational,  or  other 
appropriate  qualifications. 

On  the  theory  that  the  State  itself  may  be  supposed  to  have 
been  originally  inaugurated  and  its  operations  originally  sanc- 
tioned by  the  suffrages  of  all  its  citizens  as  their  creature  and 
agent,  a  curious  question  has  been  raised  by  some  writers, 
namely,  on  what  ground  the  State  can  exclude  from  the  con- 
stituent franchise  a  part,  though  ever  so  small,  of  its  original 
creators  or  principals.  Such  writers  have,  however,  overlooked 
the  existence  of  a  power  higher  and  mightier  than  that  of  the 
State  or  of  its  inhabitants  at  any  particular  period;  a  power 
which  is  the  real  source  of  the  authority  of  the  State.  This 
power  is  "Society,"  and  its  relation  to  the  subject  of  the  fran- 
chise will  be  dealt  with  in  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE  STATE  AS  THE  DEPUTY  OF   SOCIETY  POSSESSES   THE   JUST 
POWER  OF  ORDAINING  FRANCHISE  QUALIFICATIONS 

Yes,  for  it  was  not  Zeus  who  gave  them  forth, 
Nor  Justice,  dwelling  with  the  gods  below, 
Who  traced  these  laws  for  all  the  sons  of  men; 
The  unwritten  laws  of  God  that  know  no  change, 
They  are  not  of  today  nor  yesterday, 
But  live  forever,  nor  can  man  assign, 
When  first  they  sprang  to  being. 

(SOPHOCLES:  "Antigone") 

AT  the  end  of  the  last  chapter  was  suggested  a  question  which 
troubles  many  superficial  but  honest  and  sympathetic  thinkers. 
How,  say  they,  can  a  democratic  State  justly  refuse  the  suf- 
frage to  any  citizen?  They  see  plainly  the  policy  of  such 
refusal  in  many  cases;  they  realize  the  mischief  of  permitting 
discordant  voices  to  mar  the  democracy  of  the  cultivated  choir 
of  good  citizenship,  the  danger  of  allowing  rotten  timbers  in 
the  structure  of  the  ship  of  State;  they  wish  for  some  superior 
power  to  silence  the  one  or  remove  the  other;  but  they  cannot 
see  that  such  a  power  exists.  Can  a  man  or  any  group  of  men 
in  a  democracy  justly  assume  such  superiority  of  judgment  as 
the  exercise  of  this  power  would  imply?  If  the  State  be  as 
democracy  asserts,  the  creature,  the  agent  of  the  people,  how 
can  it  by  refusing  the  franchise  to  any  of  its  citizens  rightfully 
deprive  them  of  a  voice  in  its  deliberations?  Is  not  such 
refusal  in  its  essence  a  tyranny  and  a  negation  of  democracy? 
No  doubt  some  such  feeling  as  above  expressed,  though  per- 
haps more  vaguely  formulated,  actuated  many  who,  with  more 
or  less  reluctance  made  the  blunder  of  acquiescing  in  the 

So 


STATE   POSSESSES   POWER   TO   RESTRICT   FRANCHISE         5 1 

establishment  of  white  manhood  suffrage  in  the  first  quarter 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  also  many  of  those  who  forty 
years  later  made  the  still  greater  blunder  of  accepting  negro 
suffrage. 

An  answer  to  all  these  scruples  familiar  to  all  sound  lawyers 
and  quite  sufficient  for  most  intelligent  men,  is  found  in  the 
law  of  self  preservation.  Before  any  law  or  rule  of  a  state  or 
community  can  be  enacted,  the  state  or  community  must  have 
existence,  and  the  enactment  implies  that  the  state's  continu- 
ance is  to  be  secured.  The  original  law  of  its  being  must  first 
be  satisfied,  and  must  ever  remain  superior  to  all  other  of  its 
enactments.  It  is  sufficient  reason  therefore  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  votes  of  the  unworthy  that  they  are  prejudicial  to 
the  State,  and  the  State  in  its  struggle  for  existence  may 
rightfully  suppress  them. 

But  there  is  still  another  complete  answer  to  the  questions 
above  propounded,  and  one  perhaps  still  more  satisfying  to 
some  minds  than  that  of  the  primal  right  of  self  preservation; 
and  that  is,  that  there  does  exist  a  higher  warrant  for  the  dis- 
franchisement  of  unworthy  voters,  and  for  all  suffrage  regula- 
tions, conditions  and  qualifications  than  the  mere  precept  of  the 
State.  This  higher  sanction  is  that  which  authorized  men  in 
the  beginning  to  found  the  commonwealth  in  which  we  live. 
What  was  that  authority?  Imagine  if  you  please  the  founda- 
tion of  a  state.  By  what  rightful  authority  did  the  first  white 
settlers  in  Virginia  or  Massachusetts  establish  a  government 
and  proceed  by  its  agency  to  deal  with  the  property,  lives  and 
liberty  of  the  members  of  their  little  company  and  of  all  new 
comers?  By  what  rightful  authority  did  they  for  instance 
execute  the  first  malefactor?  The  answer  is,  by  the  mandate 
of  Society.  For  even  if  it  be  true,  as  many  insist,  that  the  State 
has  no  original  power,  but  is  a  mere  created  agency  of  limited 
authority,  it  yet  does  not  follow  that  that  authority  has  no  basis 
but  the  fiat  of  the  electorate  and  no  justification  beyond  certain 
election  certificates  and  its  own  statutes.  There  is  a  mighty 
mundane  power  in  constant  operation  amongst  men,  one  far- 


52        POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

superior  and  anterior  to  the  State;  a  part  indeed  or  manifesta- 
tion of  that  almighty  persistent  and  mysterious  force  which 
maketh  for  righteousness  in  this  world;  a  potentate  with  whose 
operations  we  are  all  perfectly  familiar  and  whom  we  may 
here,  for  want  of  a  better  word,  designate  by  the  name  "So- 
ciety." The  idea  intended  here  to  be  represented  by  that  word 
is  somewhat  difficult  of  definition.  We  may  approximately 
indicate  our  meaning  by  defining  "Society"  as  Humanity  self 
organized  for  the  promotion  of  civilization;  but  we  can  best 
identify  her  by  noting  some  of  her  operations  and  attributes. 
She  finds  her  original  source  as  all  true  authority  must  in  the 
Eternal  Verities,  and  her  sovereignty  is  mysterious  in  its 
deepest  origin  as  is  everything  vital  in  the  universe.  Her 
forms  and  methods  are  fine  and  subtle  beyond  description.  She 
is  not  the  State;  she  antedates  the  State;  she  was  the  source 
of  the  authority  of  our  first  American  ancestors  to  establish 
governments  and  to  execute  justice,  and  was  the  founder  and 
is  the  mistress  and  director  of  all  states  and  governments  that 
ever  were  or  ever  will  be.  Nor  can  she  be  identified  with  the 
population  or  body  of  citizenship  of  the  nation  or  community; 
she  is  something  which  remains  outside  and  independent  of  all 
these;  possessing  a  separate  organism,  life  and  growth  of  her 
own.  Society  is  the  Overlord,  the  vital  essence  of  which  the 
State  is  the  manifestation;  she  is  to  the  State  what  the  spirit 
is  to  the  human  body;  and  for  her  the  State  exists  and  was 
created.  Her  membership  is  not  confined  to  any  class,  but 
includes  all  those  who  voluntarily  submit  to  her  decrees. 
These  she  organizes  in  a  way  peculiar  to  herself,  assigning  to 
them  rights,  obligations,  influence  and  power  without  regard 
to  laws  or  statutes  except  those  of  her  own  original  promulga- 
tion, disregarding  entirely  the  shallow  and  false  modern  notion 
of  equality  between  men.  For  just  as  no  two  individuals  have 
exactly  the  same  appearance  or  physical  power,  so  in  the  whole 
social  domain  there  are  no  two  members  who  are  in  every 
respect  or  indeed  in  any  respect  the  social  equals  of  each  other. 
Her  membership  has  its  own  traditions,  rules  and  standards 


STATE   POSSESSES   POWER   TO   RESTRICT   FRANCHISE         53 

which  she  promulgates  by  silent  and  subtle  methods,  often 
finally  compelling  their  formal  adoption  by  the  State.  Her 
mandates  are  more  powerful  than  those  of  governments;  and 
all  political  decrees  are  subordinate  to  the  constitutions  of 
civilized  society.  Her  honors  and  powers  are  often  more  valued 
than  those  of  the  State,  and  are  conferred  not  as  in  our  politics 
at  the  command  of  mere  numbers,  as  prizes  for  oratory  or 
rewards  for  intrigue,  but  in  consideration  of  social  aptitudes 
and  energies;  so  that  in  any  given  community  you  will  find 
the  social  development  of  each  individual  to  correspond  with 
his  or  her  compliance  with  the  rules  and  mandates  of  Society. 
Thus  is  constituted  what  may  be  called  the  Social  Common- 
wealth, imperium  in  imperio,  composed  of  all  those  who  take 
up  the  cause  of  civilization;  a  number  which  does  not  neces- 
sarily represent  a  majority  or  any  definite  proportion  of  the 
people  of  the  community,  but  does  represent  and  include  the 
community's  mental  and  moral  force  and  civilizing  influence. 
Its  leaders  or  captains  are  comparatively  few;  they  are  readily 
distinguishable  as  active  champions  of  social  progress;  spend- 
ing time  and  effort  for  the  cause;  zealous  in  the  establishment 
of  public  order;  in  advancing  public  health,  in  creating  and 
maintaining  beauty  in  public  and  private  life;  in  forwarding 
enterprises  of  religion,  art,  education,  science  and  benevolence; 
in  promoting  civilizing  institutions,  such  as  libraries,  hospitals, 
churches;  also  operas,  music,  dancing  and  all  the  refinements 
of  life;  in  creating  parks  and  flower  gardens,  in  beautifying 
cities  and  villages;  in  elevating  the  standards  of  dress,  man- 
ners and  private  living,  and  in  furthering  all  civilizing  and 
humanizing  influences.  Following  these  leaders  at  greater  or 
less  social  distance  are  the  great  body  of  the  membership  of 
the  Social  Commonwealth  composed  of  all  classes  of  rich  and 
poor  and  between,  the  great  mass  of  the  socially  loyal, 
themselves  originating  and  initiating  nothing  of  social  impor- 
tance, but  faithfully  keeping  up  year  by  year  with  the  steadily 
advancing  procession;  directing  their  children  in  the  way  of 
sweetness  and  light,  that  so  they  may  reach  the  places  where 


54       POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

the  social  leaders  stood  a  generation  before.  So  that  a  basis 
for  the  establishment  of  a  qualified  electorate  and  for  the  ex- 
clusion therefrom  of  the  disqualified  is  found  in  the  primary 
fact  of  the  existence  of  two  classes  of  humanity,  the  one  in- 
cluding the  socially  fit,  the  socially  organized,  the  members  of 
the  Social  Commonwealth;  and  the  others  the  non-members  of 
that  organization.  As  already  stated,  not  all  the  inhabitants 
of  our  borders  are  the  lieges  of  Society;  there  is  the  consider- 
able body  of  the  unsocial;  comprising  those  cold  and  indiffer- 
ent to  the  social  cause,  the  socially  worthless,  the  nondescript 
and  the  rabble;  also  the  anti-social;  the  openly  hostile,  the 
criminals  and  malefactors  of  the  community.  The  existence  of 
these  two  divisions  of  men,  the  social  and  the  unsocial,  justifies 
and  requires  the  State  to  distinguish  between  them  in  granting 
the  voting  franchise.  The  primary  test  of  voting  capacity  is 
and  must  be  allegiance  to  the  social  commonwealth. 

Society  was  born  when  humanity  emerged  from*  savagery, 
and  will  endure  while  civilization  continues  in  the  world.  The 
Jacobins  of  France  of  1790,  like  the  present  Bolsheviki  of 
Russia,  got  possession  of  the  State  machinery  and  turning  it 
against  Society  swore  to  destroy  her  forever;  after  a  dozen 
years  of  strife  she  emerged  from  the  conflict  stronger  than  be- 
fore. She  accompanied  the  first  immigrants  to  Massachusetts 
Bay,  to  Jamestown  and  to  every  other  American  settlement. 
There  she  was  on  the  very  first  day  and  ever  after  with  her 
customs,  traditions,  beliefs,  classes,  prejudices,  dress,  manners 
and  standards  of  conduct,  ready  to  enforce  them  in  America 
with  the  same  despotic  authority  exercised  long  before  in  the 
England  of  the  Plantagenets,  Normans,  Saxons  and  Romans. 
And  then  and  there  in  the  fields  and  forests  of  the  new  world, 
Society  established  governments  as  her  agents  to  enforce  her 
mandates,  imposing  her  will  upon  the  States  which  she  thus 
created.  Since  then,  by  Society  has  the  onward  course  of  the 
nation  at  all  times  been  directed.  Governments  may  change; 
peace  may  follow  war;  the  monarchy  may  give  way  to  a  re- 
public or  dictatorship  and  that  to  a  democracy,  or  vice  versa; 


STATE   POSSESSES   POWER   TO  RESTRICT   FRANCHISE         $5 

laws  may  be  enacted  and  repealed,  constitutions  established 
and  abolished,  but  the  rule  of  the  Social  Commonwealth  goes 
on  forever. 

It  is  to  Society,  the  champion  of  civilization,  that  the  en- 
lightened civilized  man  considers  his  allegiance  is  ultimately 
due,  and  only  to  the  State  as  the  agent  of  Society.  A  law  to 
be  valid  and  enforceable  must  conform  to  social  mandates. 
The  late  James  C.  Carter,  a  noted  New  York  lawyer,  is  the 
author  of  a  philosophical  treatise  on  Law  in  which  he  clearly 
establishes  this  principle.  He  says  (p.  120):  "That  to  which 
"we  give  the  name  of  Law  always  has  been,  still  is,  and  will  for- 
"ever  continue  to  be  Custom."  But  customs  are  merely  the 
ordinances  of  Society.  When  the  State  forgets  its  duty  to 
Society  it  does  so  at  its  peril;  let  it  enact  for  example,  a  Fugi- 
tive Slave  Law  and  the  Emersons,  Thoreaus,  Beechers  and 
other  social  leaders  refuse  obedience  and  defy  the  State.  In 
like  manner,  wars  are  justified  when  decreed  by  Society  against 
unsocial  sovereign  states  in  the  interests  of  civilization,  as  for 
instance,  some  of  the  modern  wars  of  civilized  powers  against 
Turkey.  Consider  the  actual  political  power  and  operations 
of  Society.  Compare  the  statute  books  of  today  with  those 
of  fifty  or  a  hundred  years  ago  and  note  the  changes  she  has 
dictated  in  that  period.  History  is  sad  and  bloody  with  the 
story  of  the  efforts  of  the  State  to  modify  the  religious  prac- 
tices of  men;  they  have  all  failed;  but  Society  does  not  fail 
to  change  these  practices  year  by  year.  Commerce,  manufac- 
tures, transportation,  the  arts,  education,  customs,  manners, 
all  human  institutions  are  in  turn  created  and  destroyed  by 
Society,  and  law  and  the  State  are  powerless  to  defeat  perma- 
nently her  decrees,  while  their  own  are  only  valid  when  stamped 
with  her  approval. 

Here  then  we  find  in  the  inherent  powers  of  Society,  in 
powers  which  are  God-given  or  Nature-given  if  you  prefer,  an 
answer  to  the  scruples  of  those  who  seek  a  source  of  authority 
in  the  State  to  protect  its  life  by  preserving  its  own  machinery. 
It  is  this  supreme  potentate  acting  by  and  through  the  State 


56       POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

that  we  invoke  to  settle  the  structure  of  the  State  on  the  foun- 
dations of  capacity  and  intelligence. 

Consider  now  the  interest  of  Society  in  the  proper  regula- 
tion of  the  suffrage  as  the  source  and  foundation  of  the  State. 
Not  alone  is  she  vitally  interested  in  the  maintenance  of  the 
present  civilizing  forces  which  are  sending  us  forward  day  by 
day  on  the  march  to  higher  planes  of  life;  but  also  in  preserving 
the  material  and  intellectual  inheritance  of  all  the  ages.  This 
inheritance  includes  all  the  accumulated  acquisitions  of  the 
civilized  human  race;  its  property,  treasures,  achievements 
and  traditions;  all  the  products  of  its  mental  and  physical 
endeavor,  the  fruits  of  its  art,  literature,  science  and  industry. 
These  constitute  the  body  of  civilization  in  which  its  soul  and 
mind  are  preserved,  nourished  and  kept  alive;  they  form  a 
social  trust  for  ourselves  and  for  posterity.  "Civilization," 
said  Burke,  is  "a  triple  contract  between  the  noble  dead,  the 
"living  and  the  unborn."  And  by  that  contract  we  are  for- 
bidden to  live  or  to  legislate  so  as  to  cheat  those  who  come 
after. 

Society's  process  for  the  preservation  of  our  intellectual 
inheritance  is  called  education;  her  method  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  our  material  inheritance  is  the  institution  of  private 
property  rights.  Humanity,  property  and  education  combined, 
constitute  the  material  endowment  of  society,  wherewith  she 
works  for  the  advancement  of  the  human  race,  or  as  otherwise 
expressed  for  the  promotion  of  civilization.  Obviously  she  is 
justified  in  adopting  all  possible  precautions  to  guard  and 
preserve  this  precious  deposit  committed  to  her  charge,  nor 
can  it  be  doubted  that  she  should  carefully  select  its  custodians 
and  overseers.  Equally  plain  is  it  that  since  the  civilization  of 
the  nation  is  and  has  been  produced  entirely  by  the  thrifty 
members  of  the  Social  Commonwealth  and  remains  in  their 
guardianship,  they  and  they  alone,  as  constituting  the  class 
who  have  produced  and  cared  for  the  same  should  be  con- 
tinued in  its  care  as  the  representatives  of  Society  and  in  her 
behalf;  and  should  be  authorized  to  formulate  the  laws  and 


STATE   POSSESSES   POWER   TO   RESTRICT   FRANCHISE         57 

measures  which  make  for  its  protection  and  advancement.  To 
this  end  and  purpose  Society  is  constantly  endeavoring.  A  vol- 
ume could  be  written  illustrating  the  exercise  of  her  steady  and 
mighty  influence  in  placing  the  scepter  in  the  hands  of  her 
chosen  ones.  Rome  was  the  ancient  conservator  of  civilization, 
and  to  her  was  given  sway  for  centuries;  England  of  all  mod- 
ern nations  has  been  most  devoted  to  preserving  the  best  of 
the  product  of  the  generations  as  they  pass  on,  and  she  and  her 
race  were  made  foremost  among  nations  and  peoples.  Look 
at  the  community  where  you  live  and  you  will  easily  note  how 
Society  bestows  influence,  authority,  distinction  and  esteem 
upon  her  own  workers,  the  builders  and  creators  of  civilization 
and  upon  their  children,  and  passes  contemptuously  by  the 
unsocial  and  anti-social.  You  cannot  fail  to  observe  her  dis- 
dain of  the  mere  talkers  and  wasters  and  how  she  brings  to 
naught  the  works  and  cheap  distinctions  of  a  manhood  suf- 
frage constituency.  To  the  silly  French  Jacobin  scheme  of 
ascertaining  the  best  by  counting  noses,  Society  opposes  her 
own  never  failing  system  of  continuous  study,  training  and  se- 
lection. She  does  not  favor,  on  the  contrary,  she  discourages 
the  absurd  and  impossible  purpose  of  modern  liberalism  of 
giving  expression  to  ignorant  individual  wills  with  all  their 
clashing  selfishness  and  brutality.  She  does  not  favor  the  pol- 
itician's purpose  of  perpetuating  moral  feebleness  and  inca- 
pacity, nor  of  forwarding  the  foolish  aims  and  ideas  of  the 
weak  and  the  worthless.  She  is  far  from  giving  office  or  power 
to  such  or  from  even  hearkening  to  their  prattle  and  humbug. 
She  has  much  to  overcome.  The  power  that  makes  for  right- 
eousness is  not  permitted  to  operate  without  the  opposition  of 
fools  and  charlatans;  and  it  is  within  Society's  function  to 
master  this  opposition,  which  she  invariably  does  in  the  end. 
She  constantly  refuses  to  descend  as  manhood  suffrage  does  to 
the  level  of  the  ignoble;  on  the  contrary  when  they  presume  to 
oppose  her  in  her  momentous  business  she  undertakes  either  to 
conquer  them  by  reclamation  or  to  see  that  they  are  hanged  or 
otherwise  removed  out  of  her  implacable  path. 


58       POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

It  is  the  crime  of  manhood  suffrage  that  it  constantly  en- 
deavors to  oppose  and  thwart  this  all  beneficent  social  ten- 
dency; that  it  pushes  to  the  front  and  seeks  to  give  power  in 
civic  affairs  to  the  non-social  and  anti-social  classes,  consisting 
of  men  devoid  of  the  instinct  for  the  creation  and  preservation 
of  the  useful  and  the  beautiful,  and  who  cannot  safely  be 
trusted  as  their  guardians.  In  so  doing  it  perverts  the  State 
from  its  proper  functions.  The  State  has  no  rightful  authority 
over  men's  lives  except  as  the  deputy  of  Society,  and  its  every 
legitimate  act  should  and  must  be  for  the  promotion  of  benefi- 
cial social  objects.  It  is  its  clear  duty  as  such  deputy  to  place 
political  control  in  the  hands  of  those  gifted  with  distinguished 
social  attributes;  and  an  essential  and  the  first  step  in  that 
direction  is  the  discarding  of  manhood  suffrage  and  all  similar 
unnatural  political  stupidities  which  inevitably  lead  to  Jaco- 
binism, Bolshevism,  anarchy,  ruin  and  death. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  CAPACITY  TO  CREATE  AND  PRESERVE  PRIVATE  PROPERTY 
IS  THE  PROPER  TEST  AND  PROOF  OF  QUALIFICATION  FOR 
ACTIVE  CITIZENSHIP  IN  AN  ADVANCED  DEMOCRACY. 

THERE  are  two  principal  arguments  in  favor  of  a  property 
qualification  for  voters;  one  the  argument  of  fitness,  that  the 
propertied  class  are  the  most  capable  of  passing  upon  affairs 
of  state;  the  other  the  argument  of  justice,  that  the  business  of 
government  principally  concerns  property,  namely,  the  be- 
longings and  the  productions  of  propertied  people.  Both  these 
arguments  assume  that  what  is  wanted  is  an  honest  and  effi- 
cient government,  not  a  corrupt  and  inefficient  one. 

The  demand  for  a  property  qualification  for  voters  is  predi- 
cated upon  the  theory  that  there  is  an  obligation  on  the  part 
of  the  citizens  of  a  state  to  contribute  towards  its  material 
prosperity;  a  duty  of  such  importance  that  the  state  cannot 
flourish  in  the  face  of  its  neglect;  that  the  class  of  men  who 
are  incapable  of  creating  and  preserving  property  is  unfitted  to 
form  part  of  the  electorate;  and  that  neither  native  birth  nor 
the  taking  of  a  naturalization  oath  is  sufficient  qualification  for 
the  duties  and  function  of  active  citizenship  in  a  genuine 
democracy.  There  may  be  valid  excuses  such  as  ill  health, 
ignorance,  etc.,  for  the  individual's  failure  to  perform  his 
part  in  the  work  of  civilization,  but  such  excuses  do  not  dis- 
prove the  existence  of  the  obligation  in  others,  but  rather  em- 
phasize it.  It  is  not  well  fulfilled  when  the  citizen  only  pro- 
duces enough  from  day  to  day  for  his  immediate  support,  or 
wastes  the  surplus,  leaving  the  burden  upon  others  to  provide 
for  the  time  of  old  age,  sickness  and  incapacity.  Its  proper 
performance  therefore  involves  the  exercise  of  the  virtue 
known  as  prudence,  a  systematic  saving  or  accumulation  of 

59 


60       POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE  UNITED   STATES 

property  for  the  joint  benefit  of  the  individual  and  the  State. 
The  practice  of  this  virtue  is  incumbent  not  merely  upon  good 
citizens  but  upon  every  citizen  and  tends  to  qualify  for  active 
citizenship.  Like  cleanliness,  it  is  not  a  superfluous  but  an 
essential  virtue.  The  neglect  of  home  cleanliness  may  breed 
a  pestilence;  the  neglect  of  home  prudence  may  unfairly  burden 
the  community;  such  neglect  is  an  act  of  disloyalty  to  Society 
and  to  the  State,  and  is  a  proof  of  such  civic  incapacity  and 
indifference  as  to  require  in  any  well  regulated  political  com- 
munity, the  placing  of  the  offender  in  the  class  of  passive  citi- 
zens who  are  not  entitled  to  the  suffrage.  His  country's  pro- 
tection is  a  sufficient  reward  for  one  of  that  class  for  merely 
taking  the  trouble  to  be  born  in  her  domain.  Let  him  be  con- 
tent to  be  what  Sieyes  called  a  passive  citizen  till  he  has 
proved  his  qualification  to  be  an  active  one.  If  there 
be,  which  is  doubtful,  exceptional  cases  of  men  such 
that  neither  they  nor  their  forefathers  were  actually 
able  to  earn  more  than  enough  to  support  them,  or 
having  earned  it  to  take  care  of  it,  and  yet  are  capable  of 
directing  affairs  of  state  they  are  so  few  as  to  be  negligible. 
Such  men  need  the  spur  of  disfranchisement  to  make  them  go 
ahead,  and  meantime  the  thrifty  can  legislate  for  them.  Con- 
stitutional legislation  can  only  deal  with  groups,  or  classes,  and 
cannot  properly  attempt  to  provide  for  such  extraordinary 
exceptions. 

Democracy  is  an  ideal  form  of  government  for  none  but  a 
highly  capable  people;  a  representative  government  of  a  worth- 
less or  a  politically  indifferent  constituency  will  be  a  worthless 
government,  the  more  representative  the  more  worthless.  Wit- 
ness Hayti,  San  Domingo,  Mexico,  and  certain  Central  Ameri- 
can or  South  American  democracies.  These  are  totally  inca- 
pable because  their  electorates  are  totally  incapable,  and  in 
this  country  the  democracy,  though  not  a  complete  failure,  is 
a  partial  failure,  namely,  to  the  extent  that  its  life  is  vitiated  by 
an  inferior  constituency.  There  are  thousands  of  men,  not  to 
speak  of  women,  on  our  voting  list  who  are  as  incompetent  to 


FITNESS  AND   JUSTICE  OF   PROPERTY  QUALIFICATION      6l 

exercise  the  functions  of  voters  as  the  inferior  orders  of  Mexico 
or  Hayti.  Many  of  the  improvident  classes  have  minds  abso- 
lutely childish  and  utterly  incapable  of  foresight  or  serious 
reflection.  At  an  election  held  in  Ashton  in  England  under  the 
recently  extended  suffrage  system,  a  theatrical  man  named  de 
Freece  was  elected  to  Parliament  not  because  of  his  political 
views,  but  because  of  the  amusing  performances  of  his  wife, 
a  noted  vaudeville  actress.  We  quote  from  a  newspaper: 

"Vesta  Tilley,  the  most  popular  male  impersonator  London 
"has  known  in  decades,  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  campaign. 
"Her  Ticadilly  Johnnie  with  the  little  glass  eye'  and  other  pop- 
"ular  songs,  it  was  admitted  played  a  far  greater  part  in  the 
"election  than  her  husband's  political  views."  We  may  be  sure 
it  was  the  unpropertied  and  non-tax-paying  rabble  whose  vote 
went  in  favor  of  "Picadilly  Johnnie."  Lord  Bryce's  description 
of  the  indifferent  or  incompetent  British  voters  applies  well 
enough  to  our  own: 

"Though  they  possess  political  power,  and  are  better  pleased  to 
have  it,  they  do  not  really  care  about  it  —  that  is  to  say,  politics 
occupy  no  appreciable  space  in  their  thoughts  and  interests.  Some 
of  them  vote  at  elections  because  they  consider  themselves  to  be- 
long to  a  party,  or  fancy  that  on  a  given  occasion  they  have  more 
to  expect  from  the  one  party  than  from  the  other ;  or  because  they  are 
brought  up  on  election  day  by  some  one  who  can  influence  them. 
.  .  .  Others  will  not  take  the  trouble  to  go  to  the  polls.  .  .  .  Many 
have  not  even  political  prepossessions,  and  will  stare  or  smile  when 
asked  to  which  party  they  belong.  They  count  for  little  except 
at  elections,  and  then  chiefly  as  instruments  to  be  used  by  others. 
So  far  as  the  formation  or  exercise  of  opinion  goes,  they  may  be 
left  out  of  sight."  (American  Commonwealth,  Vol.  II,  pp.  319-20.) 

It  is  impossible  to  weigh  merits  so  nicely  as  to  exclude  all 
of  this  class;  it  is  impracticable  to  disfranchise  a  man  for 
frivolity  even  though  he  be  so  frivolous  that  his  vote  depends 
on  the  song  of  an  actress,  but  when  that  frivolity  gives  itself 
concrete  expression  such  as  incapacity  to  acquire  or  retain  prop- 
erty, it  may  and  should  be  excluded  from  our  political  life. 


62       POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

In  considering  the  proposition  that  the  creation  and  preserva- 
tion of  property  is  a  primary  duty  of  citizenship,  we  must  real- 
ize the  absolute  essentiality  of  accumulated  property  in  the 
scheme  of  civilization.  We  all  know  the  value  of  money,  but 
we  are  generally  loath  to  formally  acknowledge  its  importance. 
There  is  a  prevalent  affectation  of  indifference  towards  it, 
assumed  by  vain  fools  as  a  mark  of  superiority,  and  by  spend- 
thrift fools  to  excuse  their  stupid  poverty.  This  affectation  is 
encouraged  by  the  writers  of  the  popular  magazines  and  news- 
papers and  other  cheap  literature  which  is  published  for  the 
masses,  who  are  supposed  to  be  poor  and  to  like  to  be  flat- 
tered by  being  told  that  their  poverty,  instead  of  being  a  mark 
of  inferiority  as  it  really  is,  is  a  sign  of  superior  goodness. 
This  sort  of  writing  misleads  many  thoughtless  people  to  their 
detriment.  Civilization  can  only  be  expressed  in  terms  of 
property;  and  property  is  its  token,  its  manifestation,  its  note, 
its  unfailing  indication,  its  hall  mark.  There  is  not  a  quality, 
a  circumstance,  a  feature  of  civilization  which  is  not  repre- 
sented in  some  way  by  property,  either  by  being  due  to  prop- 
erty, derived  from  property,  originating  in  property,  or  sus- 
tained by  property.  The  desire  for  property  is  an  attribute 
of  man;  denied  to  the  lower  animals  and  dormant  in  savages, 
such  as  the  North  American  Indians  who  when  discovered, 
had  no  permanent  property,  not  even  a  year's  provisions  to  live 
on  in  times  of  scarcity,  and  had  created  nothing  for  posterity. 
A  pauperized  people  is  on  the  direct  road  to  barbarism.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  higher  the  grade  of  civilization  the  greater 
the  wealth  of  the  country;  so  that  to  attain  the  very  highest 
grade  we  must  pass  far  beyond  the  period  of  aggregation  of 
merely  useful  things  and  reach  a  point  of  great  luxury,  where 
men  can  spend  lives  and  millions  in  the  service  of  the  high  arts 
and  refinements  of  life,  and  where  in  an  atmosphere  enriched 
by  the  artistic  emanations  of  centuries,  are  produced  operas 
costing  $10,000  a  day,  and  palaces  and  cathedrals  at  an  expen- 
diture of  the  time  of  generations  of  men  and  of  hundreds  of 
millions  of  dollars  in  money. 


FITNESS  AND  JUSTICE  OF   PROPERTY  QUALIFICATION      63 

It  is  often  said  that  the  main  object  of  our  government  should 
be  to  preserve  our  political  institutions.  This  is  too  short- 
sighted a  view.  These  institutions  are  not  an  ultimate  object; 
they  are  only  the  means  of  promoting  and  protecting  civiliza- 
tion, the  which  ought  to  be  the  principal  and  ultimate  object  of 
the  State.  This  object  is  to  be  accomplished  by  encouraging 
the  citizens  in  the  voluntary  production  of  life's  primal  ma- 
terial necessities:  food,  clothing,  and  shelter;  in  the  conserva- 
tion of  the  accumulated  treasures  of  the  past,  and  by  favoring 
the  addition  thereto  of  new  contributions  by  this  generation, 
so  that  the  total  may  be  passed  on  intact  to  posterity.  Any  gov- 
ernment is  a  failure  which  neglects  that  duty;  which  if  accom- 
plished, and  a  proper  attention  given  to  education,  virtue  and 
morality  will  take  care  of  themselves.  In  the  play  of  "Major 
Barbara,"  one  of  Bernard  Shaw's  best  and  most  instructive 
comedies,  the  distinguished  author  shows  the  difficulty,  the 
almost  impossibility  of  the  reclamation  by  mere  admonition 
of  a  man  degraded  by  pauperism;  but  that  good  wages  regu- 
larly paid  will  do  the  job.  Now,  our  present  voting  system 
not  only  fails  to  encourage  thrift,  saving  or  accumulation  of 
wealth,  or  to  promote  civilization,  but  has  a  contrary  ten- 
dency, because  it  grants  equality  and  power  in  government  to 
the  non-producer,  to  the  shiftless,  lazy  and  vicious  consumers 
and  wasters  of  property. 

In  order  to  fairly  realize  the  gross  injustice  of  granting  gov- 
ernmental powers  to  the  thriftless  classes,  we  must  clearly 
visualize  and  properly  estimate  the  results  of  the  lives  and 
labors  of  the  thrifty  and  industrious.  We  must  not  fail  to 
fully  understand  that  frugality  is  the  creator  and  preserver  of 
the  State.  We  have  recently  heard  frequent  appeals  to  save 
and  help  win  the  German  war;  because  to  save  is  to  contribute 
to  a  fund  out  of  which  can  be  paid  the  expenses  of  the  govern- 
ment. But  the  common  fund  of  the  nation's  wealth  in  peace 
as  well  as  in  war  exists  and  is  drawn  upon  by  every  member 
of  the  community,  and  it  is  just  as  true  in  peace  as  in  war 
that  the  citizen  who  saves  money  is  thus  contributing  to 


64       POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

that  common  fund  and  thereby  to  the  strength  and  well-being 
of  the  commonwealth,  and  this,  whether  he  deposit  his  savings 
in  a  bank  where  it  is  loaned  out  to  aid  industry  and  create 
employment,  or  whether  he  invests  it  in  commerce  or  manufac- 
tures, directly  or  indirectly,  by  the  purchase  of  stocks  or  secu- 
rities in  industrial  or  commercial  concerns.  The  mere  fact 
of  saving,  that  is  to  say  of  producing  more  than  he  consumes 
makes  him  at  once  a  contributor  to  this  general  fund;  and 
therefore  any  man  who  leaves  behind  him  upon  his  death  money 
or  property  which  he  accumulated  in  his  lifetime  has  been  a 
benefactor  to  the  community,  in  the  same  sense  as  if  he  had 
contributed  a  great  book  or  a  valuable  invention  to  the  world, 
or  had  spent  his  life  in  benevolent  work.  To  save  or  to  make 
money  and  then  to  usefully  spend  it  in  one's  lifetime,  reaping 
the  tribute  of  the  world's  appreciation  is  well  enough;  but  to 
frugally  save  for  a  long  lifetime  in  order  to  do  good  or  give 
pleasure  to  others  after  one's  eyes  are  closed  in  death  is  surely 
nobler  still.  All  the  useful  productions  of  man  in  the  United 
States,  the  dwellings,  stores,  shops,  ships,  roads,  railroads, 
telegraphs  and  telephones;  the  schools,  colleges,  hospitals  and 
church  edifices;  all  the  accumulated  fuel  and  stores  of  manu- 
factured and  other  goods,  are  the  fruits  of  individual  saving. 
The  greatness  and  power  of  the  United  States  depend  upon  the 
collected  savings  of  generations  gone  by,  and  evidence  their 
industry,  prudence  and  self-denial.  The  class  of  Americans 
who  have  wasted  their  surplus  or  who  have  produced  no  more 
than  they  earned;  those  devil-may-care  fellows  so  admired 
by  sentimentalists,  have  been  of  no  permanent  material  value 
to  the  country;  they  are  of  the  parasite  class;  they  have  no 
part  in  the  creation  of  its  civilization  which  is  represented  by 
its  acquisitions  and  depends  upon  them  for  its  continuance. 
Many  of  these  people  give  themselves  airs  of  virtue  and  gen- 
erosity because  they  are  not  "mean"  as  they  say;  they  even 
brag  that  they  spend  as  they  go,  and  for  that  attitude  toward 
life  expect  and  sometimes  receive  applause  from  others  as 
great  fools  as  themselves.  Their  ignorance  prevents  their  per- 


FITNESS   AND   JUSTICE   OF    PROPERTY   QUALIFICATION      65 

ceiving  their  own  selfishness;  and  their  vanity  hides  from  them 
a  suspicion  of  their  worthlessness.  The  late  Andrew  Carnegie 
is  credited  with  many  sayings  wise  and  foolish;  of  the  latter 
one  of  the  oftenest  quoted  is  that  it  is  a  disgrace  to  die  rich. 
No  proverb  more  mistaken  and  mischievous  was  ever  uttered. 
For  since  no  man,  however  much  he  made  but  might  have 
squandered  it  all,  therefore  to  die  rich  implies  some  prudence 
and  self  denial,  and  usually  means  that  the  departed  left  the 
world  better  off  than  he  found  it.  The  only  anti-social  rich 
are  the  land  grabbers.  All  who  have  become  capitalists  by 
trade,  production  or  invention,  or  by  efforts  in  aid  thereof, 
are  public  benefactors. 

Here  let  us  stop  to  pay  a  well-earned  tribute  to  the  past  and 
present  rank  and  file  of  the  hard-working  money  savers  of  our 
country,  above  all  to  those  of  the  past;  to  such  of  the  departed 
ones  and  of  the  old  superannuated  fathers  and  mothers  still 
feebly  lingering  among  us,  as  have  lovingly  toiled  and  scraped 
and  saved  to  leave  something  to  their  children  and  their  de- 
scendants. They  are  and  have  been  among  the  best  the  world 
produces,  those  honest,  prudent,  thrifty,  self-denying  Ameri- 
cans, those  brave  old  progenitors  of  ours,  whose  honest  toil 
and  stinting  and  close  bargaining  for  generations  past  built  up 
the  wealth  which  makes  so  many  of  us  comfortable  and  which 
enabled  America  to  give  Germany  her  solar  plexus  blow.  May 
their  memories  be  dear  to  their  descendants  and  be  honored  by 
all  of  us  forever. 

We  hear  much  these  days  of  "class  consciousness";  of  that 
feeling  of  solidarity  among  the  working  classes  which  inclines 
the  mechanic  or  operative  to  feel  the  needs  of  his  fellow  workers 
and  to  act  with  a  view  to  their  benefit,  and  this  is  well;  but  a 
little  guiding  thought  is  never  amiss  in  such  matters,  and  will 
surely  lead  to  a  conclusion  favorable  to  a  property  qualification 
for  voters.  First,  the  workers  should  remember  that  all  good 
workmen  are  interested  in  the  creation  and  preservation  of 
capital.  Their  class  consciousness  should  align  them  on  this 
question  with  those  who  produce  and  save.  They  should 


66       POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

realize  that  immense  numbers  of  workingmen  have  savings 
bank  accounts  and  other  property  and  are  therefore  in  the  cap- 
italistic class.  Most  of  them  have  hopes  and  aspirations  for 
still  greater  wealth,  for  in  the  United  States  and  in  other 
civilized  countries  where  the  ancient  struggle  for  personal  and 
religious  liberty  is  over,  the  chief  modern  aspiration  of  all 
workers  is  to  create  and  preserve  property,  and  thus  to  enjoy 
to  the  utmost  the  security  and  happiness  which  come  with 
civilization  and  are  expressed  in  terms  of  property.  They 
should  also  understand  that  all  capital  is  in  a  fund  which  is 
accessible  to  all,  and  that  their  best  contribution  to  the  welfare 
of  their  brothers  would  be  the  increase  of  this  fund  by  their 
own  wise  thrift  and  saving.  The  savings  bank  is  a  great  crea- 
tor and  preserver  of  property,  and  operates  by  a  process  which 
is  vital  to  the  existence  of  the  unpropertied  working  man  to 
an  extent  which  he  often  fails  to  realize  till  the  destruction  of 
stored  up  capital  by  Bolsheviki  methods  brings  him  to  star- 
vation's verge.  And  while  the  property  actually  owned  by 
the  working  man  is  usually  much  less  in  dollar  value  than  that 
of  almost  any  single  capitalistic  employer  of  labor,  or  business 
men  generally,  yet  its  actual  importance  to  him  is  as  great 
or  greater;  and  then  the  use  by  the  working  man  of  property  not 
his  own  but  accumulated  by  society,  and  its  necessity  to  his 
existence  is  usually  almost  as  great  and  may  be  practically 
greater  than  that  of  the  rich  man.  The  latter  for  instance 
may  be  an  invalid  or  of  sedentary  habits,  making  but  little 
direct  use  of  mechanical  forces;  while  the  working  man  in 
question  may  be  constantly  and  necessarily  using  machinery, 
railroads,  and  other  transportation  facilities,  etc.,  in  his  daily 
employment  to  such  a  degree  as  to  be  absolutely  dependent 
on  them  for  his  existence.  In  the  case  of  another  worker  his 
direct  personal  use  of  food,  clothing,  furniture,  household 
goods,  books,  etc.,  may  be  actually  greater  than  that  of  his 
wealthy  but  more  secluded  or  abstemious  neighbor.  Such  a 
one  whether  or  not  he  realizes  it,  is  vitally  interested  in  the 
preservation  and  maintenance  of  the  property  of  others  through 


FITNESS   AND   JUSTICE   OF    PROPERTY   QUALIFICATION      67 

the  use  of  which  he  obtains  his  livelihood,  or  on  which  his 
comfort  and  happiness  depend,  and  therefore  that  government 
should  be  so  organized  as  to  protect  that  property. 

As  the  thrift  of  the  worker  is  the  root  of  our  material  pros- 
perity, so  is  the  thrift  of  the  rich  its  flower  and  choicest 
fruit.  What  would  America  be,  what  would  Europe  be  with- 
out the  savings  of  the  well-to-do,  accumulated  from  generation 
to  generation,  and  here  now  at  our  command  and  for  our  use 
manifested  not  only  in  railroads,  ships,  canals,  banks  and  all 
the  buildings  and  equipments  of  commerce  and  industry,  but 
also  in  fine  mansions,  in  elegant  furniture,  in  beautiful  lawns 
and  gardens,  in  churches,  cathedrals,  hospitals,  universities  and 
museums?  From  out  the  ranks  of  the  opulent  and  thrifty 
classes,  and  especially  of  those  of  them  who  have  scorned 
waste,  extravagance,  dissipation  and  vulgar  display,  came  the 
leaders  in  the  social  army,  the  noble  pioneers  of  taste  and 
beauty.  We  hear  much  canting  laudation  of  the  frontier 
pioneers,  a  rough  and  coarse  set  mostly,  of  whom  such  as  did 
their  part  deserve  the  credit.  But  far  more  excellent  and  ad- 
mirable are  those  to  whose  zeal,  enthusiastic  taste  and  noble 
self-denial  we  owe  most  of  the  preserved  and  accumulated 
treasures  of  the  earth  in  architecture,  painting,  sculpture  and 
ornamentation.  In  every  age,  in  every  generation  they  appear 
on  the  scene,  little  bands  of  modest  amateurs,  devoting  time, 
patience  and  money  to  rescuing  these  treasures  from  destruc- 
tion, and  to  fostering,  instructing  and  creating  public  taste 
for  created  beauty.  They  seek  and  teach  the  best  in  life, 
leisure,  refinement  and  loveliness;  they  introduce  noble  and 
graceful  fashions  in  dress,  manners  and  deportment  and  set 
fine  examples  to  the  world.  The  public  museums  and  opera  are 
endowed  by  their  benefactions;  they  are  the  patrons  of  the  best 
music,  the  purest  drama,  and  the  most  inspiring  architecture. 
And  not  merely  to  the  cultivated  very  rich  who  are  able  to  do 
so  much,  but  also  to  the  refined  of  the  more  modest  middle 
class  is  our  gratitude  due  for  their  leadership  in  this  same  direc- 
tion. We  see  their  tasteful  comfortable  houses  dotting  the 


68       POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

landscape;  their  good  sidewalks,  shady  street  trees,  gardens 
and  orchards  delight  the  wayfarer.  In  improving  the  public 
taste  in  the  choice  of  furniture,  or  book  bindings,  of  music 
and  other  things  they  are  constantly  helping  along  our  civiliza- 
tion and  forwarding  the  interests  of  the  Social  Commonwealth. 
They  train  their  children  so  that  they  often  become  still  more 
tasteful  than  their  parents;  they  set  an  example  of  decent 
living  to  the  poorer  classes;  they  beautify  the  land;  they  give 
the  rest  of  us  something  to  aspire  to.  As  we  pass  through 
a  handsome  well-kept  American  village  let  us  give  a  thought 
of  gratitude  to  the  folk  of  all  degrees  of  well-to-do,  most  of 
them  now  dead  and  gone,  who  planted  and  built  well,  who 
dressed,  talked  and  lived  like  gentlemen  and  ladies;  who  im- 
proved the  life  and  manners  of  their  time  and  left  the  world 
better  housed,  better  mannered  and  better  looking  than  they 
found  it.  Of  such  is  the  history  of  the  nation's  progress. 
Like  the  great  artists  and  authors,  they  each  contributed  an 
offering  to  civilization;  they  left  something  of  value  behind 
them  to  make  them  remembered,  were  it  only  a  little  well-built 
and  well-designed  house  for  someone  to  occupy  after  their  de- 
parture. Though  their  names  are  never  in  the  mouths  of  plat- 
form ranters,  they  are  among  the  true  patriots  of  America. 

The  manhood  suffrage  doctrine  fails  to  recognize  the  vital 
political  difference  heretofore  referred  to,  originally  pointed  out 
by  Sieyes,  that  exists  between  the  two  classes  of  citizens;  the 
one  the  faithful  members  of  the  social  commonwealth;  the 
progressive  workers,  loyal  and  active  in  the  promotion  of  civi- 
lization and  in  sustaining  the  state;  and  who  because  of  such 
civic  activity,  are  accounted  worthy  of  the  suffrage;  the  other 
the  non-socials;  the  drones;  the  neutrals  or  disloyal  and  there- 
fore ineligible  for  political  functions  of  any  sort;  non-pro- 
ducers, shirkers,  wasters,  and  destroyers.  Sieyes,  who  was  a 
statesman,  publicist  and  member  of  the  French  National 
Assembly  in  1792,  recognized  the  existence  of  these  two  clearly 
separated  classes  of  citizens,  and,  by  a  statute  pro- 
posed by  him  and  subsequently  enacted,  all  Frenchmen  were 


FITNESS   AND   JUSTICE   OF   PROPERTY   QUALIFICATION      69 

divided  accordingly  into  active  citizens  (citoyens  actifs),  hav- 
ing the  right  to  vote  and  hold  office,  and  passive  citizens 
(citoyens  passifs),  who  are  excluded  from  both  these  privi- 
leges. It  is  not  just  or  fair  that  these  latter,  who  are  always 
behind  the  chariot  of  progress,  pulling  backward  and  being 
carried  or  dragged  along,  impeding  the  march  of  the  race, 
should  compel  the  progressive  workers,  the  real  active  citizens 
of  the  country,  to  expend  a  large  part  of  their  efforts  in  over- 
coming their  resistance. 

Consider  also  the  gross  injustice  and  folly  of  inviting  a 
large  class  who  have  contributed  nothing  to  the  treasury 
of  civilization  to  share  in  its  management  and  control, 
even  permitting  them  to  mismanage,  misuse  and  waste 
it.  "That  the  tax  eaters  should  not  have  absolute  control 
"over  the  taxes  to  be  expended  by  the  tax  payers 
"would  appear  to  be  entirely  axiomatic  truth  in  political 
"philosophy.  .  .  .  That  this  suffrage  is  a  spear  as  well  as  a 
"shield  is  a  fact  which  many  writers  on  suffrage  leave  out 
"of  sight."  (Sterne,  Const.  History,  p.  270.)  Those  who  made 
this  country  what  it  is  are  the  thrifty  workers,  the  successful 
business  men.  Now,  is  it  asking  too  much  to  demand  that  the 
destiny  of  the  country  should  be  placed  in  their  hands?  Is 
it  fair  that  government  should  be  put  under  the  control  of  the 
wasteful  and  the  foolish,  that  they  may  burden  it  with  debt, 
and  bond  their  thrifty  fellow  citizens  and  all  future  genera- 
tions to  pay  off  the  obligations  thus  imposed  upon  the  nation? 

A  purely  sentimental  and  therefore  very  popular  argument 
against  property  qualification  is  that  the  rights  and  claims  of 
humanity  are  separate  from  and  superior  to  those  of  property. 
This  statement  has  really  nothing  to  do  with  the  case,  since  it 
is  not  proposed  to  exclude  humanity  from  the  polls,  but  merely 
to  select  for  admission  thereto  a  superior  and  more  representa- 
tive class.  It  is  said  by  these  sentimentalists  that  tie  rights 
of  man  are  absolute  and  transcendant  and  must  first  be  satis- 
fied, while  those  of  property  are  inferior  and  may  be  disre- 
garded. This  is  on  the  absurd  assumption  that  civilized  man 


7O       POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

and  his  property  are  separable  and  distinct  forces;  and  that  a 
conception  of  civilized  man  without  property  is  possible.  And 
so  we  are  assailed  with  the  catch  phrase,  popular  with  penny 
papers  and  platform  ranters:  "Man  is  superior  to  property." 
This,  like  most  catch  phrases,  is  found,  when  examined,  to  be 
rather  empty.  Man  is  superior  to  property  just  as  the  head 
is  superior  to  the  stomach,  as  the  fruit  of  the  tree  is  superior 
to  the  roots.  But  when  the  stomach  is  neglected  the  head  dies; 
when  the  root  is  not  nourished  the  fruit  perishes;  the  only 
way  to  preserve  the  head  is  to  feed  the  stomach ;  the  only  way 
to  produce  the  fruit  is  to  fertilize  the  roots.  Man  in  a  state 
of  civilization  cannot  exist  without  property;  if  you  sacrifice 
his  property  you  sacrifice  him.  The  imagined  comparison  of 
the  value  of  human  life  in  its  entirety  with  human  property 
in  the  aggregate  is  absurd,  it  presents  an  impossible  choice. 
How,  for  instance,  can  you  balance  the  value  of  human  life 
against  that  of  the  New  York  Croton  Aqueduct  system  which 
conserves  the  life  of  millions?  Carry  out  the  notion  that  all 
property  should  be  sacrificed  rather  than  that  one  man  should 
perish,  and  you  have  the  spectacle  of  a  people  without  food, 
fire,  clothes,  shelter  or  medicines,  whereof  not  merely  the  one 
sacred  man,  but  the  whole  lot  would  perish  forthwith.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  comparison  of  the  value  of  individual  life  with 
that  of  individual  property  depends  on  the  character  of  the  life 
and  of  the  property  referred  to.  Whatever  we  may  pretend 
we  do  not  practically  treat  the  life  of  a  human  being  as  such, 
say  for  instance,  that  of  a  savage,  as  equivalent  in  value  to  the 
highest  forms  of  property  such  as  our  great  works  of  art, 
our  great  public  works,  or  the  material  equipment  necessary 
to  our  subsistence.  It  is  probable  that  the  aggregate 
of  the  accumulated  treasures  of  wealth  and  art  which 
existed  in  Europe  at  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  Amer- 
ica was  worth  to  civilization  and  to  the  moral  and  religious 
universe  a  million  times  more  than  all  the  savage  human  life 
on  the  North  American  continent  at  that  time.  To  the  exist- 
ence of  this  accumulation  of  property  and  this  organized  so- 


FITNESS  AND  JUSTICE  OF   PROPERTY   QUALIFICATION      71 

ciety  not  only  the  well-to-do,  but  the  most  ignorant  man,  be 
he  ever  so  poor,  owes  whatever  enjoyment  he  has  in  his  daily 
life.  The  little  naked  child  is  brought  into  the  world  by  the 
aid  of  physicians  and  nurses  who  have  been  trained  in  great 
institutions  established  and  sustained  by  organized  civilized 
society  through  the  medium  of  property  accumulated  by  the 
men  of  years  and  generations  past;  and  from  his  birth  on,  the 
child,  whatever  be  his  station,  is  clothed,  fed,  sheltered  and 
nourished  in  sickness  and  in  health;  trained,  educated,  watched 
over  and  preserved  as  long  as  he  lives,  by  the  aid  of  institu- 
tions which  were  created  and  are  maintained  by  Society  through 
the  accumulation,  the  use  and  the  application  of  property.  The 
poorest  individual  is  more  indebted  to  property  accumulations 
and  is  more  dependent  upon  them  in  time  of  need  than  the 
richest,  because  it  is  only  from  them  that  charities  and  benevo- 
lences of  all  kinds,  outdoor  relief,  free  hospitals,  dispensaries, 
schools,  colleges  and  churches  can  be  maintained.  Even  Rob- 
inson Crusoe  on  his  island  would  have  perished  had  it  not 
been  for  the  use  of  such  products  of  high  civilization  as  he  was 
able  to  save  from  the  wreck. 

Following  the  argument  founded  on  the  justice  of  the  case 
comes  that  based  upon  the  superior  fitness  of  members  of  the 
propertied  class  for  the  function  of  voters.  This  fitness 
is  derived  from  the  training  which  is  incidental  to 
the  acquisition  and  care  of  property  in  the  struggle  for 
life.  The  property  qualification  for  voters  is  in 
effect  an  educational  test,  and  far  more  effective  than 
that  of  mere  book  learning,  which  so  often  turns  out  to 
be  quite  insufficient  as  a  preparation  for  the  conduct  of  human 
affairs,  and  is  equally  insufficient  for  the  understanding  of 
politics.  There  is  an  education  in  life  as  well  as  in  books  and 
the  education  in  life  is  the  more  valuable  of  the  two.  To  have 
acquired  and  preserved  property  implies  not  only  ordinary 
school  or  theoretical  education,  but  business  training  as  well, 
and  as  government  is  mostly  a  business  affair  a  property  quali- 
fication presupposes  a  special  preparatory  course  of  training 


72        POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

of  the  kind  which  is  the  best  of  all  for  the  voter,  and  in  addi- 
tion such  civic  and  political  virtues  as  are  necessary  to  success 
in  business.  "In  politics,  as  elsewhere,  only  that  which  costs 
"is  valued.  The  industrial  virtues  imply  self-denial,  which  pre- 
pares their  possessors  to  wield  political  power;  but  pau- 
"perism  raises  a  presumption  of  unfitness  to  share  in  political 
"power.  The  person  who  cannot  support  himself  has  no 
"moral  claim  to  rule  one  who  can."  (Lalor's  Cyclopedia; 
Suffrage.) 

It  is  the  actual  contact  with,  and  the  masterful  control  of 
the  things  of  life  that  fits  a  man  to  give  judgment  on  their  force 
and  value;  and  his  success  therein  is  the  test  of  his  own  ca- 
pacity. In  a  very  able  and  instructive  article  on  "The  Basic 
Problem  of  Democracy"  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  for  Novem- 
ber, 1919,  written  by  Walter  Lipman,  he  dwells  upon  the 
proposition  heretofore  generally  overlooked  that  what  is  most 
needed  in  our  political  system  is  some  means  of  giving  the 
electorate  true  information  as  to  facts.  He  says: 

"The  cardinal  fact  always  is  the  loss  of  contact  with  objective 
information.  Public  as  well  as  private  reason  depends  upon  it. 
Not  what  somebody  says,  not  what  somebody  wishes  were  true, 
but  what  is  so  beyond  all  our  opining,  constitutes  the  touchstone 
of  our  existence.  And  a  society  which  lives  at  secondhand  will 
commit  incredible  follies  and  countenance  inconceivable  brutalities 
if  that  contact  is  intermittent  and  untrustworthy.  Demagoguery 
is  a  parasite  that  flourishes  where  discrimination  fails,  and  only 
those  who  are  at  grips  with  things  themselves  are  impervious  to  it. 
For,  in  the  last  analysis,  the  demagogue,  whether  of  the  Right  or 
the  Left,  is,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  an  undetected  liar." 

For  the  purposes  of  this  argument  the  point  here  is  that  not 
only  the  mere  rabble  but  the  unpropertied  and  impecunious 
from  any  cause,  either  from  lack  of  interest  or  of  capacity,  live 
at  secondhand  in  their  relations  to  politics  and  are  not  them- 
selves at  "grips  with  things"  and  therefore  easily  become  the 
prey  of  the  demagogue,  the  undetected  liar. 

The  practical  value  of  the  property  qualification  test  though 


FITNESS   AND   JUSTICE   OF    PROPERTY   QUALIFICATION       73 

not  properly  appreciated  has  not  been  entirely  overlooked 
by  previous  writers.    For  example,  Bagehot: 

"Property  indeed  is  a  very  imperfect  test  of  intelligence;  but  it  is 
some  test.  If  it  has  been  inherited  it  guarantees  education;  if  ac- 
quired it  guarantees  ability;  either  way  it  assures  us  of  something. 
In  all  countries  where  anything  has  prevailed  short  of  manhood 
suffrage,  the  principal  limitation  has  been  founded  on  criteria  de- 
rived from  property.  And  it  is  very  important  to  observe  that  there 
is  a  special  appropriateness  in  this  selection;  property  has  not  only 
a  certain  connection  with  general  intelligence,  but  it  has  a  peculiar 
connection  with  political  intelligence.  It  is  a  great  guide  to  a  good 
judgment  to  have  much  to  lose  by  a  bad  judgment;  generally  speak- 
ing, the  welfare  of  the  country  will  be  most  dear  to  those  who  are 
well  off  there."  (Parliamentary  Reform,  p.  320.) 

Bagehot,  like  most  political  writers  and  speakers,  while 
recognizing  the  educative  value  to  the  voter  of  property  owner- 
ship and  management,  fails  to  give  sufficient  importance  to  the 
effect  of  a  business  training.  He  elsewhere  dwells  upon  the 
beneficial  influence  upon  the  voter  of  leisure,  of  education,  of 
lofty  pursuits,  of  cultivated  society;  but  he  overlooks  the  ob- 
vious fact  that  all  good  government  is  a  business  enterprise, 
and  that  a  business  training  is  essential  to  the  instruction  of  the 
electorate.  This  oversight  was  perhaps  natural  for  two 
reasons:  one  the  traditionary  contempt  in  which  all  business 
was  formerly  held  in  England,  and  by  the  literary  class 
everywhere.  Dickens,  for  example,  had  not  the  least  idea  of 
business  capacity  or  of  the  intelligent  life  of  the  business 
world  of  London,  and  Thackeray  very  little.  Their  business 
men  are  of  varying  degrees  of  stupidity.  The  fact  is  that  the 
world  of  art  and  letters  has  always  been  over  conceited  and 
inclined  on  insufficient  evidence  to  believe  itself  superior  in 
intelligence  to  the  world  of  work  and  business.  The  other 
reason  for  the  oversight  referred  to  is  that  in  former  days 
business  training  was  far  less  thorough  and  extended  than  it  has 
since  become  and  is  today. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  case  in  days  gone  by,  in  our 


74       POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

own  time  a  business  training  is  necessary  to  enable  a  voter  to 
make  a  proper  choice  of  candidates  for  public  office.  The 
only  way  to  secure  competent  officials  is  through  the  demand 
of  the  electorate  for  capable  men  and  by  close  and  intelligent 
scrutiny  of  the  candidates.  But  this  implies  capacity  on  the 
part  of  the  voters  to  pass  on  the  candidates'  qualifications  and 
to  make  a  proper  choice;  in  other  words  an  electorate  of 
trained  minds,  good  judgment  and  knowledge  of  men.  The 
voter  needs  not  only  understanding  of  the  merits  of  public  con- 
troversies and  knowledge  of  the  published  records  of  candi- 
dates for  office  but  also  judgment  to  weigh  their  qualities.  And 
just  as  some  knowledge  of  music  is  necessary  to  enable  a  lis- 
tener to  judge  of  the  ability  of  a  musician,  so  the  voter  who 
is  to  choose  men  for  office  having  proper  business  qualifica- 
tions should  himself  have  had  fundamental  business  training 
and  experience,  and  an  educated  sense  of  honesty  and  justice  in 
such  matters. 

From  all  which  it  appears  that  business  and  the  professions 
furnish  a  school  of  which  all  voters  should  be  graduates.  In 
this  institution  established  by  natural  processes  and  every- 
where in  operation,  citizens  are  being  daily  trained  in  prudence, 
foresight,  self-denial,  temperance,  industry,  frugality,  and  the 
capacity  to  reason.  There  is  a  continuous  and  automatic  ex- 
clusion of  the  unfit.  First  the  worthless,  very  stupid,  defective, 
dishonest  and  lazy  are  eliminated.  Either  they  refuse  to  enter, 
or  from  time  to  time  as  boys  or  young  men  they  are  rejected 
and  discharged  as  incompetent;  weeded  out,  and  their  places 
taken  by  the  more  competent.  As  years  go  on  the  more  in- 
dustrious, clear-headed,  honest  and  frugal  of  these  surpass 
the  others  and  achieve  success  in  proportion  as  they  display 
those  qualities,  together  with  good  judgment  and  farsighted- 
ness; while  meantime  they  establish  and  maintain  families, 
raise  children  and  acquire  more  or  less  property,  all  the  while 
gaining  in  training  and  experience  in  the  affairs  of  life.  They 
become  members  of  business  firms,  employers,  superintendents, 
business  managers,  etc.  In  agriculture  they  become  successful 


FITNESS   AND   JUSTICE   OF   PROPERTY   QUALIFICATION      75 

farmers.  In  the  professions  they  become  known  and  estab- 
lished as  reliable,  and  acquire  and  accumulate  clients  and 
patients,  regular  offices,  books,  equipment,  furniture,  together 
with  some  money  or  other  property.  In  literature  they  write 
successful  books.  In  teaching  they  become  principals  and  col- 
lege professors.  There  you  have  them,  trained  and  graduated 
in  the  school  of  life's  affairs,  the  academy  of  evolution;  a  class 
of  the  fittest  armed  with  Nature's  own  credentials,  certifying 
them  to  be  of  proper  stuff  from  which  to  build  a  safe  founda- 
tion for  the  democratic  State,  and  thus  has  nature  herself  done 
the  preparatory  work  of  selecting  material  for  an  electorate  by 
sifting  out  the  inefficient,  the  non-social,  the  passive  citizens; 
by  separating  and  putting  in  plain  sight  the  efficient  members  of 
the  Social  Commonwealth  and  stamping  them  with  the  seal 
of  competency  for  active  citizenship.  So  that  a  property  quali- 
fication for  voters  appears  upon  a  proper  consideration  to 
be  fit,  appropriate,  practical,  effective  and  in  accordance  with 
natural  law. 

Exceptions  there  probably  are,  instances  of  men  of  good 
parts  and  judgment  who  through  misadventure  have  been  re- 
duced to  such  poverty  that  they  would  be  debarred  from 
voting  under  any  fair  property  qualification  rule.  But  the  law 
cannot  provide  for  such  misfortunes  any  more  than  for  un- 
avoidable absence  from  the  polls  on  election  day.  Such  minor 
defaults  will  not  affect  the  desired  result,  which  is  the  pro- 
duction of  a  class  of  reliable  voters,  and  not  merely  a  few  ex- 
ceptional ones. 

Not  only  property  but  the  honest  and  intelligent  de- 
sire for  property  should  be  represented  in  the  councils  of  the 
State.  This  aspiration  has  been  stigmatized  by  twaddlers 
as  an  "appetite";  but  an  appetite  is  a  good  thing;  and  essen- 
tial to  life.  The  desire  for  wealth  is  one  of  nature's  construc- 
tive forces  and  should  be  availed  of  by  wise  statesmen  for  the 
purpose  of  nation  building.  Nothing  is  more  offensive  to  the 
intelligent  thinking  man  than  to  hear  hypocritical  demagogic 
ranters  denounce  as  "greed"  the  honest  efforts  of  thrift  to  col- 


76        POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

lect  together  a  competence  for  old  age,  a  provision  for  helpless 
children,  or  capital  for  a  business  enterprise.  Politicians  and 
the  impudent  followers  of  politicians,  vile  parasites  on  the 
body  politic,  scurvy  knaves  who  have  never  earned  an  honest 
hundred  dollars  in  their  lives,  make  a  trade  of  this  kind 
of  talk;  preferring  the  business  of  flattering  and  cozening  a 
constituency  of  wooden  heads  and  uncontrolled  emotions  to 
earning  a  living  honestly.  The  wish  for  property  is  a  primal 
impulse  like  the  love  of  life,  the  appetite  for  food  and  drink, 
and  the  desire  for  procreation;  it  is  in  the  nature  of  every 
healthy  man;  the  want  of  it  is  abnormal  and  detracts  from 
capacity  for  constructive  state  work.  Those  who  really  lack 
it  become  in  politics  as  dangerous  as  lunatics;  they  are 
dreamers,  enthusiasts  who  ruin  everything  they  control,  such 
as  were  Robespierre  and  thousands  of  his  followers.  One  would 
not  trust  one  of  these  crackbrains  to  build  a  house,  let  alone  a 
nation.  In  private  life  they  are  shiftless  and  burdensome  on 
their  friends  and  the  public;  in  the  lower  classes  they  are 
often  known  as  loafers  or  deadbeats ;  some  of  them  become  the 
"floaters"  of  politics,  the  cheap  material  for  bandit  political 
organizations.  On  the  other  hand  this  desire  to  create,  to  save, 
to  preserve  and  to  perpetuate  useful  and  beautiful  things, 
is  a  natural  force  which  wise  statesmen  employ  to  the  utmost 
in  the  service  of  the  State;  whose  development  they  encourage 
in  civics,  in  private  life,  in  politics  and  in  government,  and 
which  found  in  the  character  of  the  individual  should  be 
accorded  its  proper  and  legitimate,  sane  and  steadying 
influence. 

The  possession  of  property  is  also  a  necessary  qualification 
of  a  voter  because  it  renders  him  pecuniarily  independent.  The 
voter  in  a  democracy  should  be  so  situated  as  to  be  free  from 
the  need  of  yielding  to  the  temptation  of  a  bribe,  either  in  the 
shape  of  cash  or  the  salary  attached  to  a  small  office.  We 
pay  judges  large  salaries,  to  lift  them  above  the  atmosphere 
of  temptation.  The  voter  is  a  judge,  called  upon  to  pass  judg- 
ment upon  the  candidates  whose  names  are  on  the  ballot.  That 


FITNESS   AND   JUSTICE   OF    PROPERTY   QUALIFICATION      77 

the  verdict  of  the  polls  upon  these  candidates  for  office  should 
be  rendered  by  paupers,  by  men  whose  means  do  not  enable 
them  to  vote  with  independence,  is  monstrous.  The  shelter 
of  secrecy  afforded  by  the  Australian  ballot  is  no  answer  to 
this  objection.  The  purchased  voter  is  corrupted  before  he 
enters  the  booth;  his  soul  is  degraded  as  soon  as  he  resolves  to 
take  the  bribe.  Why  should  he  be  false  to  his  bargain? 
Surely  not  for  patriotism  or  virtue,  for  the  act  of  betraying  his 
purchaser  would  not  cleanse  him;  it  would  only  prove  him 
doubly  recreant.  To  say  that  the  elector  besides  being  venal 
will  perhaps  become  a  perjured  traitor  is  a  poor  plea  for  his 
admission  to  the  suffrage.  And  yet,  the  tendency  of  manhood 
suffrage  being  forever  downward  is  towards  pauper  voting.  A 
New  York  newspaper  of  March  5,  1919,  recorded  that  Lady 
Astor,  a  candidate  for  Parliament  in  Plymouth,  England,  had 
just  visited  the  almshouses  there  in  making  her  canvass  for 
votes.  In  the  short  time  England  has  been  afflicted  with  an 
approximation  to  universal  suffrage,  this  much  has  been  accom- 
plished. If  it  be  right,  it  should  go  on,  and  great  England's 
Parliament,  renowned  for  six  centuries  as  the  mother  of  all  free 
representative  assemblies,  should  become  a  club  of  chattering 
women,  sent  there  by  paupers  and  vagabonds.  America  should 
face  the  other  way.  In  its  political  life  it  has  no  need  for 
women  nor  for  flabby  and  inefficient  men;  it  needs  honesty, 
frugality,  virile  force,  courage  and  efficiency;  it  needs  a  con- 
structive and  conservative  spirit  to  replace  the  reckless  and 
wasteful  temper  now  so  prevalent.  The  electorate  should  in- 
clude only  active  citizens,  only  those  who  have  made  good ;  the 
governmental  state  should  correspond  to  the  social  state,  rep- 
resenting not  only  the  working  and  thrifty  people,  but  their 
works,  their  homes,  their  property  and  their  civilization. 

The  democratic  advance  thus  proposed  is  a  movement  on- 
ward and  upward  to  better  things.  The  manhood  suffrage  move- 
ment was  downward.  In  the  next  and  succeeding  chapters 
the  reader  will  find  briefly  sketched  some  account  of  that 
descending  progress  into  and  through  the  muck  of  ignorance 
and  corruption  for  the  past  one  hundred  years. 


CHAPTER   VI 

ORIGIN    AND    FIRST    APPEARANCE    OF    MANHOOD    SUFFRAGE    AS 
PART  OF  THE  FRENCH  TERRORIST  MACHINERY 

THE  first  national  legislature  to  be  elected  by  manhood 
suffrage  without  distinctions  or  qualifications  was  the  notorious 
red  radical  French  Convention  which  met  at  Paris,  September 
2Oth,  1792.  It  is  that  body  which  has  the  infamous  celebrity  of 
establishing  and  prosecuting  the  bloody  tyranny  known  as  the 
Terror,  under  which  tens  of  thousands  of  innocent  men  and 
women  of  France  were  put  to  death  because  of  their  supposed 
political  opinions.  Though  manhood  suffrage  may  not  be 
entirely  and  solely  responsible  for  the  excesses  of  the  conven- 
tion, yet  it  is  safe  to  say  that  it  helped  create  the  machinery  for 
the  perpetration  of  the  crimes  and  follies  of  the  Terror;  and 
that  none  of  these  excesses  would  have  been  committed  by  a 
body  selected  by  a  fairly  qualified  electorate.  All  that  was 
good  in  the  French  Revolution  was  accomplished  through  a 
propertied  electorate;  and  all  that  was  worst  was  done  under  a 
manhood  suffrage  regime. 

The  French  Revolution  began  in  1789  as  a  peaceable  and  ra- 
tional reform  movement.  None  of  the  writings  of  Rousseau 
which  did  so  much  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  great  change  had 
directly  discussed  the  suffrage  question.  The  French  National 
Assembly  which  met  in  May,  1789,  at  Versailles,  was  a  sane 
and  dignified  body,  chosen  by  a  qualified  electorate,  and  there 
was  in  its  deliberations  no  mention  and  in  its  membership 
probably  no  thought  of  universal  suffrage. 

There  was  never  any  necessity  for  physical  violence  or  revo- 
lution in  order  to  secure  the  attainment  of  all  such  political 
reforms  as  even  from  the  most  liberal  standpoint  were  needed 

78 


SINISTER  BIRTH   OF   MANHOOD   SUFFRAGE  7Q 

by  France  at  that  time.  The  government  like  all  other  gov- 
ernments of  that  day  was  ignorant  of  economic  laws,  and  the 
people  had  suffered  under  inequalities  in  rank  and  privilege, 
and  an  antiquated  and  inadequate  financial  system;  but  the 
king  and  the  nobility  were  pacifist,  and  in  the  main 
humanitarian  and  inclined  to  liberal  measures.  Within 
three  months  after  the  Assembly  convened,  the  nobility 
in  open  meeting  voluntarily  surrendered  their  historic 
privileges.  At  that  same  session  of  1789  the  Assembly 
undertook  a  number  of  reforms  and  the  re-establishment 
of  France  upon  a  firm  constitutional  and  conservative 
basis  with  proper  security  for  all  classes.  Had  the  revolu- 
tionary movement  stopped  there,  and  the  better  classes 
been  permitted  to  carry  out  their  intelligent  schemes,  France, 
under  a  constitutional  monarchy,  would  have  embarked  upon 
a  new  career  of  prosperity,  and  the  wars  which  have  since 
devastated  her  would  probably  have  been  avoided.  But  the 
Radicals  got  the  upper  hand;  on  pretence  of  remedying  the 
embarrassments  arising  from  poor  harvests  and  bad  financier- 
ing they  established  universal  suffrage  and  the  rule  of  the 
rabble,  which  increased  the  miseries  of  the  French  people  five 
fold,  and  speedily  evolved  the  Terror  and  precipitated  the  ruin 
of  the  nation.  A  great  many,  perhaps  most,  of  these  radicals 
were  men  of  little  experience,  governed  by  mere  sentiment  and 
passion;  others,  who  ultimately  became  the  working  majority 
were  men  of  low  moral  character  and  defective  reasoning 
powers;  lacking  in  principle;  demagogues  and  adventurers; 
cranks  and  scoundrels,  who,  claiming  to  be  the  champions  of 
an  ideal  democracy,  found  it  to  their  advantage  to  spout 
balderdash  with  which  to  gain  the  applause  of  the  ignorant  and 
emotional  masses.  Their  stupidities,  antics,  vagaries,  thefts, 
and  other  minor  rascalities  and  follies;  their  guillotinings, 
drownings,  arsons,  street  slaughters  and  other  butcheries  and 
outrages;  their  confiscations  and  banishments  are  matters  of 
history,  and  have  to  some  extent  been  duplicated  by  the  Bol- 
shevik! rabble  in  Russia  in  our  own  day.  To  the  tune  of 


8O       POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

crazy  cries  for  liberty  and  more  liberty,  they  attacked  prop- 
erty, vested  rights,  commerce,  business,  the  church  and  the 
Christian  religion,  and  plunged  France  into  chaos.  They  mur- 
dered and  outlawed  her  nobility  and  her  priests,  besides  tens 
of  thousands  of  innocent  people  who  were  neither  priests  nor 
nobles,  including  farmers,  artisans,  tradesmen,  poets,  artists 
and  professional  men,  the  best  of  the  land.  Under  the  first 
Republic,  it  is  computed  that  a  million  French  died  of  famine 
and  hardship,  the  direct  result  of  Radical  legislation  and  Radi- 
cal tyranny,  and  chargeable  to  a  great  extent  to  the  operation 
of  manhood  suffrage.  Nor  is  this  the  total  record  of  their 
mischief.  Their  misdeeds  produced  a  violent  reaction  which 
resulted  in  the  placing  on  the  French  throne  of  Bonaparte, 
whose  ambitions  deluged  Europe  with  blood.  A  generation 
later  he  was  followed  by  another  Bonaparte,  equally  a  result 
(though  less  directly)  of  the  Revolution;  and  he  plunged 
France  into  a  war  with  Germany,  which  in  1871  cost  her  the 
loss  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine  and  out  of  which  the  recent  great 
war  of  1914  was  born. 

France  therefore  has  never  yet  recovered  from  the  injuries 
she  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  red  radicals  in  the  first  Revo- 
lution. She  may  thank  universal  suffrage  and  the  extremists 
of  that  time  not  only  for  the  depopulation  and  misery  inflicted 
upon  her  by  the  so-called  republic  from  1789  to  1798,  and  by 
the  Napoleonic  wars  from  1798  to  1815,  but  also  for  the  loss  of 
Alsace  and  Lorraine  in  1871,  for  four  invasions  of  her  soil,  for 
her  recent  sufferings  from  1914  to  1918  and  her  reduction  from 
the  first  rank  to  the  third  among  the  powers  of  Europe.  In 
short,  she  has  paid  one  hundred  and  thirty  years  of  torment 
for  the  privilege  of  listening  to  the  rhodomontade  and  va- 
porings  of  crackbrains  and  demagogues.  Let  America  take 
warning. 

Right  here  seems  to  be  a  good  place  to  make  a  cheerful 
contrast  to  the  foregoing  by  comparing  the  radical  French 
convention  of  1792  with  the  conservative  French  Assembly  of 
1871.  It  was  after  Germany  had  triumphed  over  Napoleon  III, 


SINISTER  BIRTH   OF   MANHOOD   SUFFRAGE  8 1 

that  clay  idol  of  the  French  populace;  he  was  in  exile, 
the  empire  was  at  an  end,  the  army  was  destroyed,  and  France 
was  without  resources,  credit,  friends  or  prestige.  She  had 
to  form  a  new  government  and  try  to  re-establish  herself  as  a 
nation,  to  raise  five  thousand  millions  of  francs  and  to  get  the 
invader  from  her  soil.  The  elections  were  had  for  a  new  Na- 
tional Assembly;  the  manhood  of  France  went  to  the  polls, 
but  with  sad  and  serious  faces.  All  the  frivolity  and  humbug 
of  politics  had  disappeared.  The  masses  were  poor  and 
hungry;  the  Germans  were  at  Paris;  the  Commune  was 
threatening  the  national  existence.  It  was  a  time  for  the 
people  to  turn  to  the  genuine  patriots,  the  real  leaders  of  men, 
the  competent,  the  capable,  the  reliable.  Did  they  go  to  the 
demagogues,  the  orators,  the  enthusiastic  ranters,  the  ultra- 
radicals,  the  theorists,  the  politicians,  the  inspired  blather- 
skites whose  froth  and  flattery  are  so  much  to  the  taste  of  the 
populace?  No,  indeed.  The  fear  of  death  being  upon  them, 
the  masses  bethought  them  seriously,  and  for  once  refrained 
from  making  fools  of  themselves  at  an  election.  The  poorer 
classes,  the  peasants,  the  workingmen,  turned  eagerly  and  fear- 
fully to  the  solid  men  among  their  neighbors  for  counsel  and 
advice  and  followed  it.  Needless  to  say,  the  new  Assembly  was 
the  most  able,  intelligent,  honest  and  conservative  legislature 
poor  France  had  seen  for  many  a  day.  It  was  composed  of  men 
of  experience,  property,  education,  integrity  and  reputation; 
men  who  were  noted  champions  of  society  and  of  civilization. 
As  soon  as  the  world  heard  what  France  had  done  at  her  elec- 
tions, the  joyful  word  was  passed  along,  "France  is  saved,"  and 
saved  she  was  from  that  day.  Confidence  was  restored,  the 
Commune  was  suppressed  with  a  strong  and  vigorous  hand; 
public  and  private  credit  was  re-established;  the  Prussian 
enemy  was  paid  off  and  his  troops  withdrawn;  industry  re- 
vived, plenty  came  again,  and  France  once  more  took  her  place 
among  the  nations.  It  would  be  an  insult  to  the  reader's  intel- 
ligence to  proceed  to  point  the  moral  of  this  notable  incident 
in  the  political  history  of  the  world. 


82        POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

The  red  radicals  of  the  French  revolution  claimed  to  be- 
lieve, and  as  they  were  a  shallow  lot,  some  of  them  probably 
did  believe  as  the  masses  here  believe  today,  that  pure  man- 
hood suffrage  is  a  development  of  the  principle  of  equality. 
But  they  were  fundamentally  wrong,  they  were  in  conflict 
with  nature's  laws,  which  cannot  be  trifled  with.  As  equality  of 
power  or  capacity  does  not  exist  in  nature,  all  that  can 
rightly  be  claimed  in  that  direction  is  equality  of  opportunity, 
which  includes  recognition  of  the  superior  claims  of  merit 
and  capacity,  and  therefore  involves  the  divine  principle  of  in- 
equality of  achievement.  This  the  French  radical  revolutionary 
leaders  failed  to  perceive.  For  instance,  they  objected  to  the 
old  aristocratic  regime  because  it  was  not  founded  on  merit, 
and  because  its  offices  were  allotted  to  influence  without  ref- 
erence to  qualifications;  they  wanted  as  they  said  "La  carrier e 
ouverte  aux  talents" ;  a  career  for  talent,  a  very  commendable 
object.  But  the  operation  of  manhood  suffrage  is  just  the 
reverse  of  this;  it  denies  the  opportunity  and  the  reward  due 
to  merit,  to  talent,  to  study,  to  diligence,  to  education.  As 
far  as  possible  it  gives  to  ignorance  and  negligence  the  same 
weight  and  power  as  to  intelligence  and  assiduity.  To  give 
power  to  electors  unqualified  by  education  or  experience  to 
overrule  the  wishes  of  the  educated  and  experienced  on  political 
questions  is  to  ignore  merit  and  qualification,  and  that  at  the 
very  foundation  of  government.  But  while  the  best  thinkers 
of  the  French  reform  party  at  that  time  saw  this  plainly,  the 
radical  leaders  overruled  them,  because  what  they  wanted  was 
a  rabble  constituency,  since  none  other  would  give  power  to 
such  a  gang  of  fools  and  ruffians  as  they. 

The  world  has  made  great  progress  in  well-being  in  the  last 
one  hundred  and  thirty  years,  a  progress  due  almost  entirely  to 
its  inventors  and  discoverers  and  to  the  industry  and  frugality 
of  its  workers;  and  France  has  shared  in  that  prosperity;  but 
her  miseries  and  misfortunes  have  also  been  great,  and  these 
were  nearly  all  political,  and  due  to  one  cause,  the  operation 
of  manhood  suffrage. 


CHAPTER   VII 

IMPORTANT  INFLUENCE  OF  FRENCH  RED  RADICALISM  IN 
PROPAGATING  THE  MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  DOCTRINE  IN 
THE  UNITED  STATES. 

THE  doctrine  of  manhood  suffrage  was  imported  to  America 
from  France  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and 
began  to  infect  American  politics  some  twenty  years  after  the 
Independence,  though  its  final  triumph  was  delayed  another 
score  of  years.  To  some  of  us  it  seems  almost  incredible  that 
any  honest  man  could  avoid  being  strongly  prejudiced  against 
a  political  institution  which  had  produced  such  horrible  re- 
sults as  manhood  suffrage  in  France,  and  it  would  probably 
today  be  but  a  poor  recommendation  of  any  political  scheme  to 
an  intelligent  man  that  it  was  adopted  by  the  French  Revolu- 
tionary Convention  of  1792.  But  a  century  ago  the  masses  in 
the  United  States  were  not  thinkers,  and  were  even  more  in- 
clined to  be  carried  away  by  emotional  crazes  than  they  are 
at  present;  no  doubt  the  success  of  the  American  Revolution 
had  turned  many  heads.  It  was  a  time  when  young  gentlemen 
were  much  afflicted  by  morbid  sentimentality;  when  ladies 
did  not  fail  to  faint  on  proper  occasion;  when  American  gen- 
tlemen fought  duels  because  of  sham  sentiment  or  to  sustain  a 
sham  honor;  when  blood-curdling  novels  were  devoured  with 
gusto;  when  Byron's  all-defying  pirate  heroes  were  the  rage; 
when  young  clerks  went  about  gloomily  brooding  in  turned- 
down  collars  and  imagining  that  the  whole  world  consisted  of 
oppressors  and  the  oppressed.  To  such  a  romantic  and  super- 
ficial young  America  the  platitudes  and  empty  sentimentalities 
of  the  French  Radicals  made  a  stronger  appeal  than  the  plain 
common  sense  talk  of  the  British  Tories.  Besides  all  this 

83 


84       POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

a  large  part  of  the  American  people  at  the  close  of  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution  in  1783  were  deeply  grateful  to  the  French 
nation  for  its  timely  and  effective  assistance  in  the  war  for 
Independence.  Without  French  aid,  it  was  thought  that  the 
revolt  might  have  failed,  and  of  course  they  did  not  stop  to 
reflect  that  Lafayette  and  Rochambeau  were  noblemen;  that  it 
was  a  French  monarchy  and  not  a  republic  which  had  been  so 
helpful  to  America.  And  so  when  a  few  years  later  France 
became  a  Republic,  largely  owing,  it  was  thought,  to  American 
influence  and  example,  there  was  great  enthusiasm  in  many 
American  hearts  for  France  and  everything  French,  including 
the  new  political  theories  of  the  Rights  of  Man,  Liberty, 
Equality  and  Fraternity.  Even  the  Terrorists  for  a  time  had 
their  sympathizers  here,  some  of  whom  probably  were  unaware 
of  the  facts  as  the  newspaper  accounts  of  doings  abroad  were 
meagre  and  distorted.  The  French  partisans  here  even  believed 
and  circulated  slanders  against  the  noble  and  spotless  Wash- 
ington. It  is  easy  to  believe  interesting  lies.  Did  not 
our  fellow  Americans  in  the  South  work  themselves  up 
in  1860  to  a  silly  belief  that  they  were  or  were  about 
to  be  plundered  and  oppressed  by  the  perfectly  harmless  rest 
of  us?  Did  not  the  English  and  French  make  themselves  be- 
lieve and  declare  in  January,  1865,  that  the  Southern  States 
were  on  the  eve  of  final  victory  when  they  were  obviously 
tottering  to  a  final  fall?  Have  not  we  Americans  to  the  last 
deluded  man  of  us  gone  about  for  the  past  century  believing 
and  swearing  that  we  won  a  signal  triumph  in  the  war  of  1812 
and  refusing  to  credit  our  own  officers  and  historians  to  the 
contrary?  How  many  Americans  failed  to  go  wrong  in  their 
sympathies  at  the  beginning  of  the  last  Russian  revolution?  The 
American  radicals  therefore  probably  chose  to  believe  that 
Marat,  Robespierre,  Danton  and  Co.,  instead  of  being 
humbugs,  blackguards  and  miscreants,  were  wise  and  honest 
republicans,  whose  massacres  of  harmless  prisoners  and  other 
similar  performances  were  excusable  ebullitions  of  patriotic 
zeal.  When  for  instance  the  news  of  the  defeat  of  Brunswick 


FRENCH   TERRORIST   INFLUENCES  85 

by  Dumouriez  came  to  America  in  December,  1792,  there  were 
great  rejoicings  among  them.  There  were  dinners,  suppers, 
speeches,  cannon  firing  and  processions  in  New  York,  Phila- 
delphia, Boston,  and  other  cities.  The  inns  and  taverns  were 
filled  with  those  whose  heads  were  turned  by  liquor  and  enthu- 
siasm; some  wearing  liberty  caps  and  cockades;  all  singing, 
shouting  and  drinking  toasts.  On  December  27th  in  New 
York  City  the  whole  day  was  given  up  to  public  rejoicing,  in- 
cluding a  celebration  by  the  Tammany  Society. 

The  instinct  of  imitation  is  strong,  especially  among  children, 
savages  and  the  lower  classes.  We  had  been  imitating  the 
British;  we  now  took  to  imitating  the  French.  Everything 
French  was  popular;  became  the  rage.  When  the  French 
Minister  Genet,  representing  the  Terrorist  government,  arrived 
here  in  April,  1793,  he  landed  at  Charleston,  whence  he  pro- 
ceeded to  Philadelphia,  the  seat  of  the  Federal  Government. 
He  really  represented  a  band  of  blood-stained  scoundrels  who 
had  usurped  power  in  France,  who  had  just  guillotined  the  king 
and  most  of  whom  were  for  sale,  yet  he  was  hailed  by  a  faction 
here  as  a  hero  and  the  emissary  of  sages  and  patriots.  There 
were  receptions,  escorts,  processions  and  banquets,  where  "Cit- 
izen" Genet  was  glorified,  our  own  government  was  denounced, 
and  an  American  reign  of  terror  threatened.  At  some  of  the 
banquets  a  red  liberty  cap  was  displayed;  half  drunken  young 
American  radicals  danced  about  the  table;  the  guillotine  was 
toasted,  and  capitalists  were  threatened  with  death.  At  that 
time  England,  outraged  and  disgusted  by  the  insults  and 
bloody  rapine  of  the  French  Terrorist  government,  had  gone 
to  war  with  France;  our  howling  mobs  therefore  yelled  for 
war  with  England,  and  mouthing  politicians  who  had  never 
smelt  gunpowder  pretended  to  be  eager  to  fight  Great  Britain, 
although  we  had  neither  army,  navy,  transports  nor  money. 
Two  American  privateers  were  actually  fitted  out  to  sail 
under  French  colors  and  prey  on  English  commerce  in  defiance 
of  the  law  and  of  the  Federal  Government. 

Meantime  the  American  friends  and  enemies  of  the  French 


86       POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

Revolution  taunted  and  vilified  each  other  in  newspapers, 
pamphlets,  and  otherwise  publicly  and  privately.  Some  of 
the  American  featherheads,  in  imitation  of  the  antics  of  the 
French  Republicans,  addressed  each  other  as  "citizen"  and 
"citess,"  instead  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  this  and  that.  Serious 
and  sensible  folk,  including  President  Washington,  looked 
askance  at  these  follies,  and  by  many  they  were  treated  with 
the  ridicule  they  deserved.  The  rabble  thereupon  after  their 
nature  and  in  further  imitation  of  the  French  democracy  which 
they  so  admired,  revenged  themselves  by  flinging  coarse  insults 
at  their  unsympathetic  fellow  citizens,  including  Washington 
himself.  In  about  three  years'  time  this  wild  craze  passed 
away;  but  French  influence  continued.  French  dancing 
schools,  fencing  schools,  dishes,  names,  expressions,  customs, 
dress,  music,  and  books  were  popular;  French  newspapers  were 
published  in  all  important  cities,  and  some  permanent  progress 
was  made  by  French  Revolutionary  influence  and  ideas. 

We  may  here  note  that  after  the  death  of  Robespierre  and 
the  overthrow  of  the  Terror  and  on  September  23rd,  1795, 
after  a  test  of  over  three  years,  manhood  suffrage  was  abolished 
in  France  almost  without  a  protest.  It  was  unanimously  recog- 
nized that  it  was  responsible  for  the  Terror,  for  the  disorder 
and  insecurity  of  life  and  property  which  had  prevailed  since 
its  adoption  and  for  the  complete  financial  and  economic 
prostration  of  France,  whose  people  were  starving  by  thousands 
for  need  of  that  social  order  and  confidence  without  which 
modern  civilization  is  impossible.  In  the  official  report  on 
the  subject  presented  to  the  National  Convention  in  1795,  and 
which  was  adopted  after  full  discussion,  we  read  these  words: 
"We  ought  to  be  governed  by  the  best;  the  best  are  the 
"most  highly  educated,  and  those  most  interested  in  the  main- 
tenance of  the  laws.  Now  with  very  few  exceptions  you  will 
"only  find  such  men  among  those  who,  possessing  a  freehold, 
"are  attached  to  the  country  which  contains  it,  the  laws  which 
"protect  it,  and  the  tranquillity  which  preserves  it,  and  who 
"owe  to  their  property  and  their  affluence  the  education  which 


FRENCH   TERRORIST   INFLUENCES  87 

"has  fitted  them  to  discuss  with*  justice  and  understanding 
"the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  the  laws  which  determine 
"the  fate  of  their  country.  ...  A  country  governed  by  free- 
holders is  in  a  social  condition;  a  country  in  which  the  non- 
"proprietors  govern  is  in  a  state  of  nature."  Unfortunately 
the  mischief  that  had  been  already  done  by  the  radicals  has 
never  been  quite  cured,  and  France  has  suffered  many 
things  since  then;  but  that  is  another  story.  The  ex- 
treme French  Radicals  did  not  for  all  this  abandon  their 
attachment  to  their  revolutionary  ideas;  their  influence  in  the 
United  States  continued  to  be  very  considerable,  and  the 
rapid  spread  of  the  new-fangled  doctrine  of  manhood  suf- 
frage in  the  young  American  states  after  the  death  of  Wash- 
ington had  removed  his  conservative  influence  was  no  doubt 
largely  due  to  the  effect  of  the  plausible  ranting  and  twaddle 
of  the  French  Revolutionists  and  their  followers. 

Everything  has  to  be  paid  for  in  this  world,  and  for  the 
help  of  France  in  the  fight  for  independence,  the  United 
States  had  something  to  pay  in  the  corruption,  waste  and 
deterioration  caused  by  the  adoption  of  the  silly  theory  of 
the  French  radicals  that  in  governmental  matters  one  man's 
judgment  and  intent  are  as  good  as  another's,  those  of  the 
ignorant  and  thriftless  equal  to  those  of  the  frugal,  indus- 
trious and  well-informed. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  SAFEGUARD  OF  A  PROPERTY  QUALIFICATION  FOR  VOTERS 
WAS  DISCARDED  BY  A  GENERATION  OF  AMERICANS  WHO  DID 
NOT  REALIZE  ITS  VALUE  OR  THE  DANGERS  ATTENDANT 
UPON  UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE 

THE  circumstances  of  the  adoption  of  the  system  of  man- 
hood suffrage  by  state  after  state  a  century  ago  are  not  such 
as  to  justify  us  of  today  in  according  much  authority  to  their 
determination.  The  movement  was  one  of  weakness,  igno- 
rance and  degeneracy,  not  part  of  an  effort  to  further  achieve 
the  highest  ideals  of  republican  theories,  but  a  reactionary 
yielding  to  cheap,  selfish  and  opportunist  politics.  It  was 
successful  because  the  mass  of  the  American  people  lacked 
both  the  experience  and  the  foresight  necessary  to  enable  them 
to  realize  the  probably  fatal  result  of  the  proposed  change. 

We  have  already  noted  that  following  the  establishment  of 
the  Federal  Government  in  1789,  though  the  upper  and  edu- 
cated classes,  especially  in  the  older  American  states,  did  not 
display  much  enthusiasm  for  French  radical  political  ideas, 
and  though  Washington  and  the  propertied  class  were  openly 
hostile  to  them,  they  were  acclaimed  by  the  working  classes, 
the  poor  farmers,  the  immigrants,  and  many  of  the  romantic 
youths  of  the  country;  and  were  partly  adopted  by  Jefferson 
and  such  others  as  like  him  were  somewhat  under  French 
influence.  We  may  add  to  the  influences  favoring  manhood 
suffrage  in  the  old  and  populous  states  that  of  the  resident 
foreigners,  which  was  considerable.  It  would  be  a  mistake 
to  suppose  that  at  this  early  period  there  had  been  little  immi- 
gration to  this  country.  The  fact  is  that  the  proportion  of 
immigrants  to  the  whole  population  was  then  probably  greater 

88 


AMERICAN  ABANDONMENT   OF   PROPERTY   QUALIFICATION     89 

than  at  any  subsequent  time;  the  foreign  element  at  the 
time  of  the  independence,  including  British  and  Irish,  Ger- 
mans, Dutch,  Swedes  and  French,  probably  amounting  to 
about  one-third  of  the  entire  population.  Another  class  of 
people  who  unquestioningly  accepted  the  doctrine  of  manhood 
suffrage  was  that  of  the  frontiersmen  or  pioneer  western 
settlers.  It  is  the  fashion  in  these  days  to  hail  every  political 
novelty  as  an  "advance,"  and  accordingly  the  twaddlers,  includ- 
ing writers  of  that  ilk,  tell  us  unctuously  that  the  adoption  of 
manhood  suffrage  was  part  of  the  "advance"  of  civilization. 
The  truth  is,  however,  that  it  was  not  the  fruit  of  an  improved 
civilization,  but  was  first  adopted  when  and  where  the  popu- 
lation was  coarse,  rough  and  unlettered.  In  the  new  and 
sparsely  settled  states,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  Kentucky, 
Georgia,  Tennessee  and  Ohio,  the  principle  of  manhood  suf- 
frage was  accepted  almost  as  a  matter  of  course  and  with- 
out any  serious  discussion.  In  those  states  there  was  at 
that  time  an  approximation  to  practical  equality  among  the 
inhabitants  both  in  property  and  intelligence,  the  standard 
of  both  being  low;  political  problems  were  simple  and  prim- 
itive; and  an  equal  share  in  government  to  all  men  seemed 
natural  and  reasonable.  There  was  but  little  property  except 
land  which  was  plenty  and  cheap ;  farming  was  the  principal 
occupation;  and  the  farmer  was  confined  to  the  home  market 
there  being  no  railroads  to  carry  his  produce  to  distant  places. 
The  great  differences  between  rich  and  poor  existing  in  older 
communities  were  not  present;  none  of  the  conditions  which 
render  manhood  suffrage  so  objectionable  in  large  cities  were 
found  in  these  new  states.  When  Georgia  adopted  a  low 
qualification  in  1789  her  population  was  less  than  two  to  the 
square  mile;  when  Vermont  entered  the  Union  she  had  less 
than  ten  to  the  square  mile;  Kentucky  had  two;  Ohio  one; 
Tennessee  two.  There  must  have  seemed  little  reason  in 
attempting  to  create  distinctions  in  rude  and  primitive  com- 
munities where  none  actually  existed. 
Another  consideration  operating  to  lower  the  suffrage  was 


90       POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

the  competition  among  the  new  states  to  get  settlers  on  any 
terms.  Nearly  all  of  those  who  had  land  in  the  newer  states 
had  more  than  they  could  use  and  were  not  only  very  anxious 
to  sell  some  of  it,  but  to  get  new  neighbors  on  any  terms, 
since  each  new  arrival  measurably  increased  the  value  of 
their  holdings.  One  of  the  baits  to  induce  immigration  was 
the  right  to  vote  and  hold  office  offered  to  all  new  comers. 
Even  in  our  own  day  a  number  of  western  states  permit 
aliens  to  vote  as  an  inducement  to  settle  in  their  limits,  and 
we  have  had  in  the  last  few  years  the  curious  spectacle  of 
unnaturalized  and  presumably  hostile  Germans  voting  at  elec- 
tions. The  right  to  vote  was  highly  valued  in  those  early 
communities,  where  fortunes  were  not  easily  made,  and  where 
political  preferment  was  much  sought  after  as  the  most  avail- 
able road  to  distinction.  To  close  that  avenue  to  ambition 
was  to  discourage  new  settlers.  It  was  therefore  inevitable 
that  such  of  the  original  thirteen  as  were  sparsely  settled 
states  with  populations  composed  partly  of  frontiersmen,  and 
also  all  the  new  states  as  they  came  in  one  by  one,  should  be 
willing  to  waive  property  qualifications  for  voters.  And  thus 
it  was  that  in  1789  Georgia  reduced  her  suffrage  qualification 
to  a  small  annual  tax  requirement;  that  in  1791  Vermont 
and  in  1792  Kentucky  came  into  the  Union  under  manhood 
suffrage  constitutions;  that  in  1792  New  Hampshire  adopted 
manhood  suffrage;  that  in  1803  Ohio  entered  with  a  minimum 
tax  qualification  and  that  Indiana  in  1816,  Illinois  in  1818 
and  Missouri  in  1820  were  admitted  as  manhood  suffrage 
states,  while  some  of  the  others,  such  as  Tennessee,  Mississippi 
and  Louisiana,  merely  prescribed  tax  qualifications  which  were 
far  from  onerous. 

In  the  older  states  the  advance  of  the  manhood  suffrage 
movement  was  aided  by  the  influences  already  referred  to;  by 
the  French  Revolutionary  party,  including  many  foreigners; 
the  city  laboring  classes,  the  thriftless  and  discontented,  and 
the  restless  horde  of  theorists,  dreamers,  penny-a-liners,  polit- 
ical adventurers,  demagogues,  agitators,  radicals  of  every 


AMERICAN   ABANDONMENT   OF   PROPERTY   QUALIFICATION     9 1 

stripe,  and  many  of  that  numerous  class  who  had  more  facility 
in  talking  than  in  thinking.  There  is  even  yet  among  people 
of  small  intelligence  a  widespread  belief  in  the  miraculous  effi- 
ciency of  voting;  and  that  belief  is  no  doubt  accountable  for 
some  of  the  eagerness  with  which  the  suffrage  was  demanded  by 
superficial  men  who  thought  to  better  their  condition  by 
politics,  and  who,  though  plainly  lacking  in  efficiency,  unable 
even  to  get  together  a  few  hundred  dollars  in  property  to 
qualify  them  as  voters,  nevertheless  rated  high  their  own 
capacity  to  decide  problems  of  state.  We  may  add  to  this 
as  helping  the  movement  the  plausibility  to  shallow  minds  of 
the  assertion  that  all  men  are  equal;  and  the  prestige  given  it 
by  its  being  quite  unnecessarily  put  by  Jefferson  into  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  Another  cause  which  has  been 
said  to  have  contributed,  was  the  severe  financial  panic  of 
1819  which  brought  widespread  distress  and  consequent  dis- 
content with  things  as  they  were.  Why  not  try  a  change?  is 
an  argument  which  has  more  or  less  success  at  every  elec- 
tion. Then  too  the  American  easy  good  nature  and  hos- 
pitality of  character  must  have  helped  along;  that  softness 
which  makes  many  dislike  to  refuse  a  boon  which  will  not 
cost  anything  in  cash  or  its  equivalent.  It  must  have  seemed 
to  many  men  easy  and  pleasant  to  vote  to  allow  their  neigh- 
bors to  vote,  especially  when  to  a  dull  man  the  reasons  to  the 
contrary  were  not  altogether  obvious. 

Nor  is  it  altogether  strange  that  even  in  New  York  and 
Massachusetts  few  except  the  best  trained  minds  had  any 
real  understanding  of  the  dangers  of  letting  in  the  ignorant 
and  the  thriftless  classes  to  a  voice  in  government.  The  Amer- 
ican people  had  no  experience  of  a  political  machine  or  of 
demagogues  in  power,  and  to  most  of  them  the  operation  of 
government  seemed  comparatively  simple  and  within  easy  com- 
prehension. Even  in  the  old  states  the  population  was 
mostly  rural;  there  were  no  railroads  or  telegraphs, 
comparatively  little  machinery,  and  none  operated  by 
steam.  The  property  of  the  country  consisted  of  houses, 


Q2        POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

lands,  farms,  cattle  and  sheep;  living  was  very  plain,  and 
the  expenses  of  government  comparatively  small.  Life  was 
not  then  the  complicated  affair  that  it  is  at  present,  special- 
ization was  rare,  efficiency  in  any  branch  of  business  was  not 
near  so  difficult  to  achieve  as  it  has  since  become.  Under 
the  election  system  then  in  practice,  and  following  the  old 
colonial  traditions  then  still  extant,  the  candidates  for  office 
had  usually  been  men  of  distinction  whose  reputations  were 
well  known  in  the  community,  and  who  were  personally  known 
at  least  by  sight  and  speech  to  most  of  the  voters.  The 
people  had  had  no  real  experience  of  government  by  election 
in  large  constituencies.  There  were  few  large  cities,  the 
largest  in  1820  being  New  York,  with  a  population  of  125,000, 
while  Philadelphia  had  but  65,000  and  Boston  45,000  popu- 
lation. Probably  it  was  comparatively  safe  in  most  urban 
communities  to  leave  the  street  door  unguarded  at  night,  a 
practice  scarcely  recommendable  in  New  York  or  Chicago 
in  these  times.  Their  governors  had  previously  either  been 
sent  from  England  or  chosen  by  their  state  legislatures,  and 
their  high  state  officials  had  been  appointed  by  the  crown, 
the  governor,  the  proprietor  or  the  legislature.  Their  only 
real  experience  with  the  suffrage  had  been  in  small  local  elec- 
tions, parishes,  boroughs  and  towns,  where  the  prizes  of 
office  were  small  and  everyone  knew  his  neighbor.  Most  of 
the  voters  were  substantial  American  farmers  and  tradesmen, 
who  anticipated  as  the  result  of  the  granting  of  manhood  suf- 
frage nothing  worse  than  that  the  roll  of  new  voters  would 
include  their  own  sons,  the  village  schoolmaster,  together  with 
a  few  poor  artisans  and  farm  hands  who  had  no  class  preju- 
dices, who  could  be  depended  upon  to  vote  with  their  well-to-do 
neighbors,  and  whose  numbers  were  not  sufficient  to  seriously 
affect  election  results. 

To  the  extent  to  which  the  manhood  suffrage  movement 
was  conscious  of  its  own  tendencies,  it  was  a  revolt  led  by 
political  adventurers  against  government  by  the  intelligence 
of  the  country,  and  above  all  and  beyond  all  the  forces  operat- 


AMERICAN  ABANDONMENT  OF  PROPERTY  QUALIFICATION     93 

ing  in  furtherance  of  the  movement  for  manhood  suffrage  in 
the  older  states  was  the  new  influence  of  the  politicians  and 
political  office  seekers,  who  by  1820  began,  though  in  a  com- 
paratively small  way,  to  appear  as  a  real  political  power  in 
the  land.  Though  many  of  our  ancestors  early  distrusted 
and  later  learned  to  hate  and  despise  the  politicians,  the 
people  have  never  organized  to  oppose  them  and  in  the  begin- 
ning failed  to  realize  the  insidious  growth  of  their  sway. 
The  politicians  then  as  now  clamored  for  an  extended  elec- 
torate, the  more  ignorant,  simple,  emotional  and  easily  influ- 
enced the  better.  They  welcomed  the  uninstructed  male  vote 
of  that  day  for  the  same  reason  that  they  welcome  the  still 
more  ignorant  female  vote  of  this  day.  The  ears  of  the 
masses  were  open  to  them  because  they  could  talk  and  bellow 
the  political  cant  and  jargon  in  which  the  rabble  delight. 
Then  as  now  they  wanted  all  the  offices  made  elective;  suffrage 
for  everybody,  even  aliens,  and  especially  the  ignorant  and 
shiftless;  and  they  kept  up  their  efforts  in  the  old  states  until 
the  bars  were  let  down,  and  every  man  had  a  vote. 

Most  of  the  old  populous  states  began  the  change  by 
lowering  the  qualification,  changing  it  from  the  actual  owner- 
ship of  property  to  the  payment  of  a  tax,  usually  a  small 
one,  sometimes  merely  nominal.  Pennsylvania,  a  state  tainted 
with  French  radical  sympathies,  had  already  reduced 
the  qualification  to  the  payment  of  a  state  or  county  tax; 
this  standard  was  adopted  by  Delaware  in  1792.  In  1809 
Maryland  adopted  manhood  suffrage.  In  1810  South  Carolina 
and  in  1819  Connecticut  reduced  the  qualification  to  an  almost 
nominal  tax  rate.  In  1829  Virginia  reduced  the  property  re- 
quirement and  finally  abolished  it  in  1850.  New  Jersey  held 
out  till  1844. 

The  great  battles,  however,  and  those  which  finally  decided 
the  controversy  in  the  United  States  were  fought  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  in  New  York  in  1820  and  1821,  though  in  both 
states  the  success  of  the  manhood  suffrage  party  was  a  fore- 
gone conclusion  before  the  final  test  was  made.  The  situa- 


94       POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

tion  was  much  the  same  as  it  has  since  been  in  relation  to 
woman  suffrage.  As  long  as  woman  suffrage  partisans  had 
no  votes  anywhere  the  politicians  gave  them  but  scant  courtesy. 
Even  after  they  gained  one  or  two  states  they  were  not  much 
considered.  But  as  soon  as  they  had  four  or  five  states  to 
their  credit  the  politicians  began  to  flock  to  their  standard; 
the  weaker  and  more  unscrupulous  going  over  first.  The 
reason  is  plain.  Every  politician  of  note  has  his  eye  on  the 
presidency  either  for  himself  or  for  his  leader  and  his  party. 
Under  our  system  where  the  presidential  vote  is  by  states  a 
single  state  may  turn  the  election,  and  a  woman  suffrage  state 
as  well  as  another.  Mr.  Wilson  for  instance  and  Mr.  Roose- 
velt, though  on  opposite  sides  on  everything  else,  were  united 
in  patriotism,  in  burning  desire  for  office  and  in  devotion  to 
democracy.  Of  course  they  both  became  champions  of  woman 
suffrage  just  as  soon  as  a  few  states  had  been  captured  by 
the  women  and  also  of  course  their  party  followers  took  their 
cue  accordingly.  So  it  undoubtedly  was  in  1820.  By  that 
time  there  were  nine  new  states  west  of  the  Alleghany  Moun- 
tains. When  it  was  seen  that  in  all  these  new  states  manhood 
suffrage  was  in  vogue,  no  presidential  possibility  dared  oppose 
manhood  suffrage  anywhere,  nor  dared  his  followers  differ  from 
him  on  this  point.  It  was  a  rush  to  get  on  the  band  wagon. 
And  why  should  the  professional  politicians  oppose  a  measure 
so  obviously  in  their  interest  as  a  degradation  of  the  ballot? 
Naturally  therefore,  in  the  New  York  Constitutional  Con- 
vention of  1821  we  had  Martin  Van  Buren,  a  Jackson  poli- 
tician, leading  the  battle  for  extension  of  the  suffrage  and 
carrying  all  before  him. 

One  naturally  turns  for  enlightenment  on  the  merits  of  the 
question  to  the  records  giving  the  arguments  used  pro  and  con 
in  the  discussions  on  the  suffrage  extension  propositions  of 
that  time,  but  they  are  more  interesting  than  important,  be- 
cause the  debaters  lacked  the  light  of  modern  experience.  Our 
political  bosses  and  machines  had  not  yet  arrived,  and  America 
had  then  no  immense  populations  of  millions  accustomed  to 


AMERICAN  ABANDONMENT  OF  PROPERTY  QUALIFICATION     95 

live  on  daily  wages,  lacking  the  slightest  knowledge  of  the 
principles  or  practical  operation  of  finance,  banking,  trade  and 
commerce;  ignorant  of  the  very  elements  of  political  economy, 
and  yet  ready  to  vote  on  all  these  matters  under  the  direction 
of  demagogues,  themselves  in  the  employ  of  bosses  and  ma- 
chines. There  were  then  no  such  divisions  of  classes  as  now; 
no  large  criminal  and  pauper  population;  no  masses  of  for- 
eigners herded  together  in  tenement  house  life  and  ignorant 
of  our  problems  and  conditions.  Our  ancestors  of  a  century 
ago  were  not  gifted  with  imagination  or  prevision  sufficient 
to  enable  them  to  foresee  the  enormous  future  immigration 
from  Europe;  the  factory  and  tenement  house  systems;  the 
vote  market;  the  absolute  and  corrupt  oligarchy  of  politicians, 
the  political  ring,  machine  and  boss.  Had  they  been  gifted 
with  this  foresight  it  is  safe  to  say  that  instead  of  lowering 
the  suffrage  qualifications  they  would  have  put  the  bars  up  so 
high  that  the  disgraceful  record  of  American  politics  for  the 
last  eighty  years  would  never  have  been  made. 

In  Massachusetts  the  Convention  included  as  members,  John 
Adams,  Webster,  Judge  Joseph  Story  of  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court,  Samuel  Hoar  and  Josiah  Quincy.  The  impor- 
tance of  protecting  property  interests  had  been  recognized  in 
that  state  ever  since  long  prior  to  the  Revolution,  both  by  a 
suffrage  qualification  and  in  a  provision  whereby  membership 
in  the  State  Senate  was  apportioned  according  to  the  total  taxes 
paid  in  each  senatorial  district.  This  system  was  continued 
by  the  Convention  of  1820  but  was  subsequently  abolished. 
Its  sole  importance  was  in  its  recognition  of  a  principle;  as  a 
barrier  against  the  rising  tide  of  suffrage  extension  it  was  use- 
less. The  suffrage  previously  limited  to  owners  of  a  moderate 
amount  of  property,  real  or  personal,  was  by  this  Convention 
extended  to  all  male  citizens  having  paid  any  state  or  county 
tax.  Adams,  Webster  and  Story  voted  and  spoke  against  the 
extension,  but  the  writer  has  not  seen  a  report  of  their  argu- 
ments. Such  of  the  speeches  on  the  subject  as  are  reported 
are  not  illuminative.  They  do  not  go  deeply  into  the  matter; 


96       POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

those  in  favor  of  an  extension  have  the  tone  of  the  perfunctory 
advocacy  of  a  majority  assured  of  success,  those  in  opposition 
that  of  a  hopeless  protest.  In  favor  of  the  extension  it  was 
argued  that  there  was  a  popular  demand  for  it;  that  it  had 
been  enacted  in  other  states;  that  the  existing  Massachusetts 
qualification  was  in  practice  merely  nominal;  that  it  was  easily 
evaded  by  perjury  and  sham  transfers;  that  the  sentiment  of 
patriotism  does  not  depend  upon  the  possession  of  property; 
that  the  right  to  vote  goes  with  the  levy  of  a  tax  and  that  on 
principle  all  subject  to  even  a  poll  tax  were  entitled  to  vote, 
and  were  unjustly  degraded  when  the  right  was  denied  them. 
In  opposition  it  was  argued  that  property  is  the  foundation  of 
the  social  state;  that  there  is  no  natural  right  to  vote,  and 
that  the  question  is  one  of  expediency;  that  the  property  qual- 
ification was  necessary  as  a  moral  force  and  a  check  on  dema- 
goguery;  that  it  encouraged  industry,  prudence  and  economy, 
was  a  protection  against  waste,  elevated  the  standard  of  civil 
institutions  and  gave  dignity  and  character  to  voter  and  can- 
didate; that  very  few  beside  vagabonds  were  actually  ex- 
cluded from  the  polls,  and  while  the  qualification  required 
was  attainable  by  every  efficient  man,  yet  the  principle  was 
an  important  one  and  should  be  retained  in  the  Constitution 
even  though  its  enforcement  had  been  somewhat  lax  and  in- 
effective. The  majority  both  in  the  Convention  and  at  the 
polls  in  Massachusetts  was  decisive  in  favor  of  the  proposed 
extension. 

In  New  York  the  Convention  was  practically  committed  to 
the  new  measure  before  it  met.  The  State  Assembly  had  pre- 
viously reported  in  its  favor  solely  on  the  ground  that  the 
property  qualification  excluded  many  of  the  militia;  referring 
probably  to  that  large  body  of  young  militiamen  who  were  too 
young  to  have  acquired  property.  The  report  said,  "On  that 
"part  of  our  Constitution  which  relates  to  the  qualification  of 
"voters  at  election,  your  committee  have  to  remark  that  al- 
"though  its  provisions  when  applied  to  the  State  of  New  York 
"may  be  salutary  and  necessary  it  excludes  from  a  participa- 


AMERICAN  ABANDONMENT  OF  PROPERTY  QUALIFICATION          97 

"tion  in  the  choice  of  the  principal  officers  of  our  government, 
"that  part  of  the  population  on  which  in  case  of  war  you  are 
"dependent  for  protection,  viz.,  the  most  efficient  part  of  the 
"militia  of  our  state."  This  meaningless  "straddle"  is  very 
suggestive  of  Van  Buren.  As  an  argument  for  manhood  suf- 
frage it  is  worthless.  It  is  of  course  absurd  to  say  that  because 
a  man  has  served  or  may  serve  in  the  militia  he  should  there- 
fore be  intrusted  with  any  part  of  the  functions  of  government 
irrespective  of  his  lack  of  other  qualifications.  Were  the  argu- 
ment good  it  would  require  the  extension  of  the  vote  to  boys 
of  eighteen  and  upwards,  and  would  call  in  question  the  right 
to  vote  of  any  man  incompetent  to  bear  arms  because  of  age 
or  infirmity.  The  business  of  government  is  one  thing,  and 
the  business  of  fighting  in  the  field  is  another  and  very  different 
thing.  But  this  flimsy  argument  was  capable  of  being  used 
in  an  emotional  manner  and  no  doubt  was  so  employed  in  the 
Convention  with  considerable  effect;  and  though  some  of  the 
militia  had  certainly  failed  to  cover  themselves  with  glory  in 
the  war  of  1812,  and  many  commands  had  done  nothing  but 
parade,  no  politician  cared  to  offend  them  or  even  to  appear  to 
have  done  so.  Another  so-called  argument  was  that  of  the 
Convention  Committee  on  the  Elective  Franchise  which  handed 
in  a  report  in  favor  of  the  change,  containing  the  meaningless 
assertion  that  property  distinctions  were  of  British  origin,  but 
that  here  all  interests  are  identical.  The  true  theory  that  voting 
is  the  exercise  of  a  governmental  function  was  not  suggested  by 
the  Committee. 

Manhood  suffrage  was  opposed  in  the  New  York  Convention 
by  three  of  our  ablest  jurists,  Judges  Spencer  and  Platt  of  the 
Supreme  Court  and  Chancellor  Kent,  the  learned  author  of  the 
Commentaries  on  American  Law  and  one  of  the  most  emi- 
nent lawyers  of  the  world.  Judge  Platt  truly  said  that  the 
"elective  privilege  is  neither  a  right  nor  a  franchise,  but  is 
"more  properly  speaking  an  office.  A  citizen  has  no  more 
"right  to  claim  the  privilege  of  voting  than  of  being  elected. 
"The  office  of  voting  must  be  considered  in  the  light  of  a  pub- 


9 8       POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

"lie  trust,  and  the  electors  are  public  functionaries,  who  have 
"certain  duties  to  perform  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  com- 
"munity."  Chancellor  Kent  strongly  and  forcibly  said  "I  can- 
"not  but  think  that  considerate  men  who  have  studied  the 
"history  of  republics  or  are  read  in  lessons  of  experience,  must 
"look  with  concern  upon  our  apparent  disposition  to  vibrate 
"from  a  well  balanced  government  to  the  extremes  of  the  demo- 
"cratic  doctrines."  Of  the  principle  of  universal  suffrage  he 
said  that  it  "has  been  regarded  with  terror  by  the  wise  men  of 
"every  age,  because  in  every  European  republic,  ancient  and 
"modern,  in  which  it  has  been  tried,  it  has  terminated  disas- 
trously and  been  productive  of  corruption,  injustice,  violence 
"and  tyranny.  .  .  .  The  tendency  of  universal  suffrage  is  to 
"jeopardize  the  rights  of  property  and  the  principle  of 
liberty." 

The  vote  in  the  convention  in  favor  of  the  extension  was  100 
to  19.  The  people  of  the  State  subsequently  approved  it  by  a 
substantial  vote.  The  majority  in  New  York  City  favoring  it 
was  4608.  On  March  4th,  1822,  the  Legislature  took  the  oath 
under  the  revised  Constitution.  Flags  were  displayed,  church 
bells  rung,  there  were  salutes  of  cannon  and  an  illumination 
in  New  York  City.  Some  slight  vestiges  of  the  property  qual- 
ification still  remained  after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution 
of  1822  but  they  were  abolished  in  New  York  State  in  1826 
by  a  vote  of  104,900  to  3901. 

Although  the  action  of  New  York  in  1821  following  Massa- 
chusetts in  1820  practically  insured  the  triumph  of  manhood 
suffrage  in  the  United  States,  yet  the  most  interesting  and 
ablest  discussion  upon  the  subject  was  yet  to  take  place  at 
Richmond,  Virginia,  in  the  State  Convention  of  1829.  The 
State  of  Virginia  had  still  clung  to  the  old  freehold  suffrage 
qualification;  in  that  Commonwealth  prior  to  1829  it  was  not 
enough  that  a  voter  should  have  property  or  business  expe- 
rience; he  must  be  the  owner  of  land  or  a  freehold  interest 
therein.  The  standard  was  not  high,  from  $2  5  to  $50  accord- 
ing to  circumstances,  but  it  established  the  principle  and  ex- 


AMERICAN   ABANDONMENT   OF   PROPERTY   QUALIFICATION          99 

eluded  the  most  degraded.  Unfortunately,  it  also  excluded 
many  thrifty  and  intelligent  citizens  whose  holdings  did  not 
happen  to  be  in  the  form  of  real  estate.  On  the  demand  then 
made  for  extension  of  the  franchise,  an  opportunity  to  consider 
and  discuss  the  theory  of  suffrage  was  naturally  presented  to 
the  Constitutional  Convention.  That  body  was  composed  of 
about  one  hundred  members,  including  the  ablest  political 
thinkers  and  most  skilful  and  aggressive  debaters  of  Virginia. 
In  point  of  statesmanship  and  forensic  ability  its  membership 
has  probably  never  been  surpassed  in  the  history  of  the  United 
States.  It  included  ex-Presidents  Madison  and  Monroe,  Chief 
Justice  John  Marshall,  John  Tyler,  John  Randolph,  William 
Giles  and  Alexander  Campbell.  The  convention  sat  for  over 
three  months  and  in  the  course  of  the  discussion  on  matters 
connected  with  the  suffrage  dozens  of  speeches  were  made, 
the  perusal  whereof  is  very  interesting  to  the  political  student. 
Unfortunately,  it  so  happened  that  though  the  debates  were 
able,  the  consideration  of  the  whole  matter  was  biased  by 
local  rivalries  and  by  the  slavery  question,  then  beginning 
to  confuse  and  prejudice  the  Southern  mind,  and  the  most 
distinguished  of  the  delegates  took  only  a  minor  part  in  the 
proceedings.  Between  the  Blue  Ridge  and  the  sea  was  Eastern 
Virginia,  the  Old  Dominion,  where  tobacco  raising  flourished, 
white  labor  was  scarce  and  all  influential  white  men  were 
freeholders.  West  of  the  Blue  Ridge  lay  a  new  region,  where 
the  industrial  situation  was  similar  to  that  of  the  free  states, 
and  where  there  was  a  large  body  of  non-freeholding  white 
working  men  of  the  borderland  type,  who  for  years  had  been 
agitating  for  the  abolition  of  the  old  freehold  qualification. 
It  was  a  clash  between  the  Old  East  and  the  New  West;  be- 
tween free  labor  and  slave  proprietorship.  The  Convention 
not  only  undertook  the  individual  suffrage  controversy,  but 
entered  into  the  question  which  also  divided  the  two  sections  of 
the  State,  whether  the  basis  of  county  representation  in  the 
legislature  or  in  either  branch  thereof  should  continue  as  here- 
tofore to  be  property  values  rather  than  population;  thus 


IOO      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

bringing  up  the  fundamental  question  of  whether  numbers  only 
should  govern  without  regard  to  intelligence,  creative  power 
or  value  to  civilization.  In  this  controversy  Eastern  Virginia, 
having  the  greater  share  of  wealth  and  of  conservative  ideas, 
stood  for  property  rights,  and  the  West  stood  for  what  it 
dubbed  "progress"  and  the  "rights  of  man."  The  dispute 
threatened  the  disruption  of  the  Commonwealth,  which  actually 
came  to  pass  a  generation  later  in  1863.  The  final  action  of  the 
Convention  was  satisfactory  to  neither  section.  The  question 
of  county  representation  was  finally  settled  by  an  elaborate 
compromise  by  which  each  county  and  region  was  given  an  ar- 
bitrary proportion.  The  champions  of  an  extension  of  the  suf- 
frage were  victorious  by  a  vote  of  51  to  37,  Madison  and  Mar- 
shall voting  with  the  majority  and  Monroe  with  the  minority; 
and  thus  the  suffrage  which  had  theretofore  been  confined  to 
owners  of  land  was  extended  to  such  heads  of  families  as  were 
housekeepers  and  paid  taxes.  While  the  only  immediate  effect 
was  to  let  in  a  class  of  owners  of  personal  property,  yet  it  was 
generally  realized  at  the  time  that  the  new  measure  would  prac- 
tically open  the  door  to  all  heads  of  families  however  limited 
their  means,  and  that  universal  suffrage  was  but  a  short  step 
further  off. 

One  interested  in  Virginia  history  can  hardly  help  wishing 
that  he  might  have  witnessed  the  Convention  in  session.  Some 
of  those  present  had  taken  part  in  the  American  Revolution; 
all  had  breathed  the  Revolutionary  atmosphere.  Monroe,  old 
and  feeble,  presided  as  long  as  he  could  hold  the  gavel, 
but  finally  was  compelled  by  weakness  to  retire.  He 
was  able  to  tell  the  Convention  of  a  visit  to  another  Conven- 
tion in  Paris  over  thirty  years  before,  and  of  witnessing  (an 
ominous  spectacle)  the  murder  of  one  of  its  members  in  the 
convention  hall.  Madison,  another  ex-President,  was  seventy- 
eight  years  of  age;  he  spoke  two  or  three  times  during  the  ses- 
sion, but  his  voice  was  so  low  that  he  could  not  be  heard  be- 
yond a  distance  of  a  few  feet.  When  he  arose  to  speak  the 
members  left  their  seats  and  grouped  themselves  respectfully 


AMERICAN  ABANDONMENT  OF  PROPERTY  QUALIFICATION    IO1 

about  him.  Randolph,  who  bitterly  opposed  the  suffrage  exten- 
sion scheme,  had  been  the  most  popular  speaker  in  the  state;  he 
was  at  that  time  stricken  and  shriveled  by  disease,  but  the 
older  delegates  remembered  him  as  one  who  in  his  youth  had 
been  described  as  beautiful,  fascinating,  and  even  as  lovely. 
Alexander  Campbell  was  there,  a  young  man  destined  in  later 
years  to  be  the  founder  of  a  great  religious  denomination. 

These  Virginia  Convention  debates  were  the  last,  the 
ablest,  and  the  most  exhaustive  public  discussions  of  the  suf- 
frage question  in  the  United  States  and  must  be  considered  as 
having  included  all  the  arguments  on  either  side  which  were 
strongly  present  to  the  minds  of  American  politicians  and  pub- 
licists of  the  time.  They  were  opened  with  great  ability  by 
Judge  Upshur  in  a  very  forcible  argument  lasting  several  days 
in  favor  of  property  representation.  Many  of  the  superficial 
minded  among  the  delegates  favoring  extension  had  come  to 
Richmond  relying  upon  the  proposition  that  suffrage  is  a 
natural  right.  Upshur  shattered  this  notion  right  at  the  be- 
ginning, and  it  was  but  little  heard  of  in  the  Convention  after- 
wards. The  absurdity  of  a  savage  being  born  with  a  natural 
right  to  participate  in  a  government  which  was  not  even 
imagined  until  thousands  of  years  afterwards  was  easily  made 
apparent.  "Is  it  not  a  solecism"  (said  Barbour)  "to  say  that 
rights  which  have  their  very  being  only  as  a  consequence  of 
government,  are  to  be  controlled  by  principles  applying  ex- 
clusively to  a  state  of  things  when  there  was  no  government?" 
Some  of  the  delegates  were  evidently  familiar  with  Rousseau, 
and  with  his  theory  of  a  social  compact.  They  discussed  at 
length,  but  without  result,  the  question  whether  suffrage  is  or 
is  not  a  right  derived  from  this  supposed  agreement;  and  if  so, 
whether  it  was  strictly  personal  or  individual,  or  whether 
property  rights  were  also  included  within  the  contract,  and 
might  therefore  properly  be  considered  in  allotting  suffrage 
privileges.  This  naturally  raised  the  question  also  inconclusively 
debated  whether  property  as  such  is  a  constituent  element  of 
society;  or  whether  it  is  not  rather  a  result  of  society  action, 


IO2      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

and  its  acquisition  one  of  the  principal  inducements  to  enter 
social  bonds. 

Although  the  doctrine  that  governments  were  instituted  and 
maintained  for  the  protection  of  private  property  as  well  as 
life  and  limb  was  prominent  in  the  minds  of  all  the  conserva- 
tives and  was  acknowledged  by  nearly  every  delegate  in  the 
Virginia  Convention,  yet  the  undoubted  fact  that  the  act  of 
political  voting  is  a  responsible  public  function  needing  special 
preparation  and  qualification  was  not  in  Richmond  any  more 
than  previously  in  Boston  realized  by  the  body  of  delegates; 
nor  was  the  fact  that  government  is  a  business  organization, 
needing  the  services  of  expert  business  men,  suggested  among 
them;  nor  the  manifest  expediency  of  using  the  practice  of 
business  as  a  school  for  the  voter.  The  philosophy  of  the 
delegates  did  not  go  beyond  the  theory  of  government  as  an 
agency  for  the  protection  of  private  property  rights  and  the 
kindred  belief  that  a  permanent  and  tangible  interest  in  the 
State  was  a  necessary  requirement  of  a  voter.  We  have  seen 
that  in  the  Virginia  Bill  of  Rights,  adopted  in  1776,  the  right 
of  suffrage  was  expressly  limited  to  men  having  "sufficient  evi- 
"dence  of  permanent  common  interest  with  and  attachment  to 
"the  community."  In  1829  the  principal,  and  with  most  of  the 
Virginia  delegates  the  only  objects  aimed  at  in  imposing  a 
qualification  upon  the  voters  were  the  protection  of  property 
and  the  creation  of  an  electorate  interested  in  the  prosperity  of 
the  state;  the  right  of  society  to  demand  that  the  voter  bring 
to  the  polls  a  trained  and  disciplined  mind  was  lost  sight  of 
altogether. 

The  narrowing  effect  of  sectionalism  and  prejudice  on  the 
human  mind  is  curiously  illustrated  by  the  remarkable  fact 
that  in  the  Convention  debates  it  was  assumed  on  both  sides 
that  the  entire  benefit  of  the  protection  of  private  property 
by  the  Commonwealth  inured  to  its  individual  owners.  West 
Virginia  delegates,  therefore,  insisted  that  the  rich  automati- 
cally received  a  preponderant  share  in  the  blessings  of  govern- 
ment; for  example,  said  they,  ten  Virginians  each  owning 


AMERICAN  ABANDONMENT  OF  PROPERTY  QUALIFICATION     103 

$20,000  of  property  receive  in  all  $200,000  of  protection,  which 
is  double  the  total  benefit  received  by  one  hundred  citizens  own- 
ing $1,000  each;  thus  one  group  of  ten  men  get  twice  as  much 
aggregate  benefit  from  the  state  as  another  group  of  a  hundred 
men.  Over  and  over  again  it  was  urged  that  government  pro- 
tection of  property  was  principally  for  the  benefit  of  the  rich 
minority.  According  to  this  absurd  theory,  the  State  of  Vir- 
ginia had  no  interest  in  the  preservation  of  the  accumulated 
private  property  within  its  borders;  and  would  not  be  dam- 
aged if  its  dwellings,  furniture,  barns,  stock,  crops,  vehicles 
and  vessels  of  every  description  were  destroyed.  The  Virginia 
clerks,  laborers  and  hired  workers  of  every  description  would 
not  suffer  in  such  case  by  being  deprived  of  employment;  pos- 
sibly they  could  subsist  on  air,  ruins  or  radical  doctrines.  The 
lack  of  business  training  and  of  business  conceptions  among 
the  exceptionally  able  men  of  that  Convention,  and  the  need 
of  such  training  for  the  membership  of  similar  bodies  today 
is  strongly  brought  to  our  attention  by  the  circumstance  that 
such  foolish  reasoning  passed  unchallenged.  The  fact  that 
all  property  is  of  common  utility;  that  it  constitutes  a  vast 
store  from  which  all,  rich,  poor  and  middling  are  alike  sup- 
ported ;  that  the  workman  needs  the  factory  at  least  as  much  as 
the  proprietor,  was  not  in  the  mind  of  the  Convention;  the 
probability  that  the  destruction  of  the  entire  property  of  the 
ten  rich  men  above  referred  to  would  injure  the  community  at 
large  even  more  than  the  owners  was  apparently  not  appre- 
ciated by  the  Virginia  delegates  in  1829  any  more  than  it  would 
be  by  the  members  of  one  of  our  aldermanic  boards  today. 

The  principal  arguments  urged  in  the  Virginia  Convention 
in  favor  of  manhood  suffrage  were,  ( i )  the  difficulty  of  apply- 
ing any  standard  of  property  qualification;  (2)  that  in  the  ship 
of  state  all  are  passengers,  and  the  poor  among  them  have  the 
same  interest  in  protection  from  the  elements  as  the  rich;  (3) 
that  gratitude  requires  that  old  soldiers,  though  poor,  should 
be  given  a  vote  by  the  country  they  have  served;  (4)  that  man- 
hood suffrage  had  worked  well  in  other  communities;  (5)  that 


104      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

men  are  naturally  not  robbers  of  each  other  but  are  inclined  to 
be  affectionate,  social,  patriotic,  conscientious  and  religious; 
(6)  that  all  men  either  have  or  desire  property  and  are,  there- 
fore, natural  supporters  of  property  rights.  The  answer  to 
these  propositions  is  obvious,  (i)  the  difficulty  of  making  the 
standard  of  qualifications  for  any  employment  or  function  an 
absolutely  perfect  one  is  never  considered  a  sufficient  reason 
for  failing  to  establish  any  standard  whatever.  Witness  the 
arbitrary  standards  of  age  and  residence  for  voters  and  office 
holders,  the  qualifications  of  teachers,  doctors,  lawyers,  etc.; 
(2)  in  no  ship  is  the  management,  whether  in  fair  weather  or 
foul,  left  to  the  untrained  or  those  without  pecuniary  interest 
in  the  voyage;  (3)  suffrage  should  never  be  given  or  accepted 
by  the  unqualified  as  an  expression  of  gratitude;  the  veterans 
might  as  well  demand  to  be  licensed  as  dentists  as  to  be  allowed 
to  meddle  with  state  affairs;  (4)  experience  shows  that  man- 
hood suffrage  has  not  worked  well  but  evil  all  over  the  world; 
(5)  some  men  are  robbers  and  still  others  lack  capacity  to 
select  agents  or  rulers  who  are  honest.  The  main  question  is 
one  of  capacity  to  exercise  the  voting  function  to  the  advan- 
tage of  the  state.  (6)  That  all  men  do  not  sufficiently  desire  prop- 
erty to  enable  them  to  act  prudently  and  justly  in  their  property 
dealings  is  shown  by  the  immense  number  of  spendthrifts, 
wasters,  idlers,  cheats,  rogues,  gamblers  and  vagabonds  in  the 
world. 

Some  of  those  who  then  and  there  favored  the  extension 
would  probably  oppose  it  today  in  our  thickly  populated  com- 
munities. Eugenius  Wilson,  for  instance,  an  advocate  of  ex- 
tension, admitted  that  suffrage  should  be  restricted  in  an  in- 
ferior, corrupt  or  uninstructed  constituency. 

The  convention  was,  of  course,  regaled  by  the  radicals  with 
the  usual  popular  sing-song  cant.  It  was  told  that  the  suffrage 
was  "an  inestimable  privilege  of  the  individual  citizen,"  a  prop- 
osition which  is  in  flat  contradiction  to  the  experience  of  every 
voter  and  to  the  plain  facts.  This  proposition  Leigh  had  the 
courage  to  deny,  saying  that  good  government  for  all  and  no* 


AMERICAN  ABANDONMENT  OF  PROPERTY  QUALIFICATION 

a  mere  right  to  individuals  to  vote  is  the  real  desideratum.  The 
majority  leaders  talked  of  the  "original  principles"  of  govern- 
ment, among  them  being  that  each  citizen  may  vote,  etc. 
Upshur  denied  that  there  were  any  original  principles  of  gov- 
ernment, because  he  said  "political  principles  do  not  precede, 
they  spring  out  of  government."  He  further  said  that  property 
as  well  as  persons  is  a  constituent  element  of  Society; 
that  the  very  idea  of  Society  carries  with  it  that  of  property 
as  its  necessary  and  inseparable  attendant,  and  that  when  man 
entered  Society  it  was  to  procure  protection  for  his  property; 
take  away  all  protection  to  property  and  our  next  business  is  to 
cut  each  other's  throats;  the  great  bulk  of  legislation  affects 
property  rather  than  persons,  and  without  property  govern- 
ment cannot  move  an  inch.  Leigh  uttered  some  things  worth 
quoting,  among  them  these  true  and  forcible  words:  "Power 
"and  property"  (said  he)  "may  be  separated  for  a  time  by 
"force  or  fraud  but  divorced  never.  For  so  soon  as  the 
"pang  of  separation  is  felt,  if  there  be  truth  in  history,  if 
"there  be  any  certainty  in  the  experience  of  ages,  if  all  pre- 
hensions to  knowledge  of  the  human  heart  be  not  vanity  and 
"folly,  property  will  purchase  power,  or  power  will  take  prop- 
"erty.  And  either  way,  there  must  be  an  end  of  free  govern- 
"ment.  If  property  buy  power,  the  very  process  is  corrup- 
tion. If  power  ravish  property  the  sword  must  be  drawn,  so 
"essential  is  property  to  the  very  being  of  civilized  society, 
"and  so  certain  that  civilized  man  will  never  consent  to  return 
"to  a  savage  state." 

The  proposal  to  continue  the  freehold  basis  of  suffrage  was 
defeated  by  a  vote  of  37  to  51,  Monroe  voting  yea  and  Madi- 
son and  Marshall  voting  nay,  and  by  a  similar  vote  the  right 
of  suffrage  was  extended  to  housekeepers,  being  heads  of  fam- 
ilies and  paying  any  tax  whatever.  The  reader  may  be  curious 
to  know  how  the  people  of  Virginia  themselves  stood  on  the 
question,  but  it  is  impossible  to  say.  The  vote  on  the  adop- 
tion of  the  constitution  was  26,055  in  favor,  to  15,563  opposed; 
but  this  vote  was  not  a  measure  of  Virginia  popular  opinion 


IO6      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

in  regard  to  a  property  qualification.  The  election  went  off 
on  a  different  question  and  curiously  enough,  the  new  constitu- 
tion which  extended  the  suffrage  was  adopted  by  the  votes  of 
those  opposed  to  the  extension.  The  western  counties  though 
favoring,  were  disappointed  because  they  were  not  given  the 
legislative  representation  they  claimed;  in  that  respect  the  new 
constitution  was  considered  favorable  to  the  east,  which  though 
opposed  to  suffrage  extension,  voted  for  ratification,  while  West 
Virginia  voted  to  defeat  it.  Of  the  total  vote  in  opposition, 
I3?337>  °r  °ver  five-sixths,  came  from  the  region  west  of  the 
Blue  Ridge. 

Thus  the  Virginia  discussion  of  the  suffrage  question,  which 
engaged  the  ablest  public  men  of  the  state  for  a  generation 
and  which  ought  to  have  produced  a  valuable  result,  came  after 
all  to  nothing  but  compromise  forced  by  clamor.  Though 
property  qualifications  were  reduced  by  the  convention,  the 
true  principle  involved  was  not  presented  or  passed  upon.  The 
champions  of  good  government  unfortunately  took  their  stand, 
not  on  the  broad  ground  of  property  rights  and  political  effi- 
ciency, but  on  the  narrow  claim  of  landholders  and  slave  owners 
to  control  the  legislature  of  the  state;  they  permitted  them- 
selves to  be  placed  in  the  false  position  of  attempting  to  deny 
to  the  most  enterprising  and  successful  business  man  the 
vote  which  they  offered  to  the  shiftless  proprietor  of  a  log 
cabin  in  the  backwoods.  They  stood  on  no  sound  principle 
and  they  were  defeated. 

And  now,  looking  back  after  a  century  and  considering  the 
immense  importance  of  the  subject,  one  cannot  help  regretting 
that  the  fruits  of  the  convention  labors  were  merely  local  and 
temporary;  that  it  met  after  suffrage  extension  had  been  prac- 
tically allowed  to  go  by  default  throughout  the  Union,  and  that 
the  Virginia  delegates  came  to  Richmond  pledged  each  to  one 
side  of  a  sectional  dispute,  instead  of  prepared  to  take  part  in 
a  philosophical  or  statesmanlike  search  for  political  truth.  Very 
different  might  have  been  the  result  had  the  Virginia  political 
mind  taken  up  this  question  freed  from  local  and  slavery 


AMERICAN  ABANDONMENT   OF   PROPERTY  QUALIFICATION     IO7 

prejudice,  and  had  the  political  talent  wasted  in  a  struggle  for 
sectional  control  been  employed  in  the  useful  work  of  studying 
the  real  foundation  principles  of  suffrage  in  a  democracy  and 
presenting  the  conclusions  to  the  Virginia  electorate  and  to  the 
world.  In  such  case  it  might  have  reached  such  a  result  and 
brought  out  such  a  declaration  of  principles  as  would  have 
saved  the  country  and  the  world  centuries  of  wallowing  in  the 
slough  of  political  corruption  and  despond. 

To  complete  the  record  it  may  be  added,  that  in  1850,  by  a 
vote  of  75  to  33,  another  Virginia  convention  further  extended 
the  suffrage  to  all  male  adult  residents.  As  before,  the 
question  was  confused  with  the  old  dispute  over  the  apportion- 
ment of  the  respective  claims  of  the  east  and  west  to  represen- 
tation in  the  legislature;  this  was  again  settled  by  a  compro- 
mise after  a  prolonged  deadlock  and  the  settlement  was 
approved  by  a  popular  vote  of  75,748  to  11,060.  This  may 
be  said  to  be  the  final  close  of  the  property  qualification  con- 
troversy in  Virginia  and  in  the  Union,  though  it  had  been  sub- 
stantially decided  a  generation  before;  and  since  1850  there 
has  been  nowhere  any  serious  discussion  of  the  question  of 
the  right  of  property  to  direct  representation  in  government 
and  it  has  been  generally  regarded  since  that  time  as  forever 
disposed  of.  But  nothing  is  finally  setted  till  it  is  settled  right. 

And  so,  after  a  survey  of  the  entire  history  of  the  establish- 
ment of  manhood  suffrage  in  the  United  States,  we  see  that 
this  great  experiment  was  originally  undertaken  by  the  Ameri- 
can people,  with  but  little  realization  of  its  importance  and 
almost  no  foresight  of  its  calamitous  results.  We  have  here 
another  of  the  numerous  instances  of  the  truth  of  the  dictum 
that  "Often  the  greatest  changes  are  those  introduced  with  the 
least  notion  of  their  consequence,  and  the  most  fatal  are  those 
which  encountered  least  resistance." 

The  majorities  in  favor  of  manhood  suffrage,  wherever  the 
question  was  tested,  were  overwhelming,  but  they  prove  noth- 
ing; they  merely  illustrate  once  more  the  well  known  human 
lack  of  vision.  Many  other  equally  foolish  measures  have 


108      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

been  adopted  by  similar  majorities  and  attended  by  similar 
popular  manifestations  of  satisfaction.  The  vote  in  South 
Carolina  for  secession  was  unanimous  and  the  popular 
rejoicing  thereat  was  unbounded.  Yet  we  all  now  see 
that  that  secession  vote  was  a  stupendous  blunder  made 
without  moral  or  political  justification  or  ground  for  hope 
of  success.  Many  of  the  French  Revolutionary  lunatic 
performances  were  almost  unanimously  decreed  and  approved 
by  popular  vote.  In  like  manner  the  American  people 
in  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  were 
blinded  into  the  acceptance  of  manhood  suffrage  or  into  com- 
parative indifference  concerning  it,  little  realizing  that  in  place 
of  thereby  securing  as  they  were  told  for  themselves  and  their 
descendants  a  greater  measure  of  political  liberty,  they  were 
thereby  fast  riveting  upon  them  the  chains  of  political  bondage. 


CHAPTER   IX 

FIRST  EFFECTS  AND  SUBSEQUENT  RESULTS  OF  MANHOOD  SUF- 
FRAGE; SPOILS  SYSTEM;  TRAFFIC  IN  VOTES;  ORGANIZED 
CORRUPTION;  THE  BOSS;  THE  MACHINE;  RULE  OF  POLITI- 
CAL OLIGARCHY. 

Then  cried  they  all  again,  saying,  Not  this  man,  but  Barabas. 
Now  Barabas  was  a  robber.  (John:  Chap,  xviii,  40.) 

ON  March  4th,  1829,  the  old  Federal  regime  died  with  the 
departure  of  John  Quincy  Adams  from  the  White  House.  The 
year  1828  is  generally  taken  as  the  last  full  year  of  the  old  hon- 
orable and  high-toned  political  system  inaugurated  by  Wash- 
ington; the  last  year  at  the  Federal  capitol  of  real  statesman- 
ship, of  high  ideals  and  of  strict  and  uncompromising  devo- 
tion to  duty.  Manhood  suffrage  had  by  this  time  become 
established  and  in  operation  in  almost  every  state  in  the  Union, 
and  it  had  succeeded  in  electing  as  president  of  the  United 
States  a  spoilsman,  Andrew  Jackson,  the  apostle  of  extreme 
democracy,  by  whom  the  former  rule  of  appointments  to  public 
office  for  merit  only,  and  the  old  doctrine  of  the  continuance 
of  faithful  officials  in  their  places  were  flung  to  the  winds. 

The  change  in  the  electorate  effected  by  manhood  suffrage 
was  not  merely  superficial,  it  was  radical;  what  then  appeared 
to  many  a  mere  liberalizing  of  the  franchise  was  in  reality  a 
breaking  down  of  the  guard  wall  which  had  hitherto  kept  the 
country  from  slipping  down  into  the  slough.  It  degraded  the 
practice  of  American  politics  from  an  honorable  exercise  of 
patriotism  to  a  sordid  business  employment;  it  created  a  class 
of  professional  politicians,  self-seeking  traffickers  in  office  and 
the  spoils  of  office;  and  transferred  to  them  the  political  con- 

109 


IIO      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

trol  which  had  theretofore  rested  in  the  hands  of  the  gentlemen 
of  the  country.  This  unexpected  result  of  manhood  suffrage 
was  due  to  the  fact  not  sufficiently  realized  at  the  time,  that  it 
brought  into  American  politics  the  important  element  of  the 
controllable  vote,  to  which  was  speedily  applied  by  the  politi- 
cians methods  of  organization,  crude  and  makeshift  at  first,  and 
afterwards  thorough  and  scientific.  The  American  people  did 
not  then  foresee  the  existence  of  a  proletariat  city  vote,  nor 
the  immense  possibilities  in  the  organization  of  floaters. 
The  local  politicians  of  the  day,  however,  saw  their  chance 
and  seized  it;  from  amateurs  they  developed  into  professionals, 
and  they  speedily  made  these  floaters  the  nucleus  of  a  small 
well-disciplined  regular  army,  by  means  whereof  they  seized 
the  machinery  of  elections  and  of  government,  which  they  have 
ever  since  retained. 

Let  us  here  stop  for  a  moment  to  consider  and  realize  what 
the  country  lost  at  one  stroke  by  manhood  suffrage  in  its  swift 
descent  from  the  high  character  and  traditions  of  that  Federal 
government,  the  presidency  of  which,  much  against  his  will, 
John  Quincy  Adams  transferred  on  March  4th,  1829,  to  An- 
drew Jackson.  The  administrations  of  Washington  and  the 
older  Adams  had  been  of  rigid  integrity;  Jefferson,  Madison 
and  Monroe  had  followed  in  their  footsteps.  At  the  time  there- 
fore of  the  election  of  the  second  Adams  in  1824,  the  nation 
had  already  acquired  an  established  tradition  of  about  as 
pure  an  administration  of  government  as  was  humanly  possible. 
The  most  valuable  political  asset  of  a  people  consists  of  its 
high  political  standards  and  traditions;  established  slowly  and 
imperceptibly  and  by  forces  of  subtle  operation  they  are  ele- 
ments of  the  highest  importance  to  its  well  being.  They  afford 
the  explanation  of  many  instances  of  the  superior  success  of 
one  country  over  another  in  operating  the  same  political 
machinery.  Already  in  the  United  States  of  1824  there  existed 
traditions  and  standards  of  this  high  character;  among  them  a 
belief  that  men  should  enter  politics  if  not  solely  from  pa- 
triotic motives,  then  at  least  from  a  worthy  ambition  for  honor 


EFFECTS  AND  RESULTS  OF  MANHOOD   SUFFRAGE          III 

and  power,  and  in  order  to  further  ideas  of  public  policy.  This 
was  undoubtedly  the  doctrine  extant  at  that  time;  and  men 
could  not  then  as  now  live  and  flourish  in  political  life  under 
the  scarce  denied  imputation  of  being  in  politics  in  order  to 
gather  political  spoils,  or  for  the  mere  sake  of  salary  or  from 
other  sordid  motives. 

The  high  national  traditions  were  well  maintained  and 
strengthened  by  John  Quincy  Adams  during  his  four  years' 
term  from  1825  to  1829.  He  represented  the  opposite  of  the 
manhood  suffrage  ideal,  he  was  unflinchingly  opposed  to  gov- 
ernment by  numbers;  to  the  spoils  system,  to  machine  political 
methods  and  objects;  he  was  a  statesman  rather  than  a  poli- 
tician, and  an  honest  gentleman  first  of  all.  His  lineage  was 
of  the  best,  his  public  experience  great;  his  learning  deep;  his 
reputation  unsullied;  he  was  austere,  just  and  high-minded; 
his  public  record  was  pure  and  honorable.  He  was  the  only 
president  except  Washington  who  obtained  the  office  entirely 
on  his  merits,  without  having  done  anything  to  court  political 
support.  While  president  he  made  appointments  to  office 
solely  on  fitness,  applying  that  test  even  to  his  political  and 
personal  opponents,  keeping  them  in  office  provided  they  were 
qualified  for  its  duties,  and  absolutely  refusing  to  use  in  the 
slightest  degree  his  executive  power  so  as  to  procure  his 
renomination.  In  1868  a  congressional  committee  reported 
that  having  consulted  all  accessible  means  of  information,  they 
had  not  learned  of  a  single  removal  of  a  subordinate  officer 
except  for  cause  from  the  beginning  of  Washington's  adminis- 
tration to  the  close  of  that  of  John  Quincy  Adams.  Under  such 
management  and  prior  to  1829  the  average  of  office  holders 
was  generally  fair;  most  of  them  were  men  who  had  led  ap- 
proved lives,  had  inherited  or  acquired  a  good  standing  in 
society,  and  had  achieved  a  certain  prominence  by  a  combina- 
tion of  social  and  political  qualities,  and  through  the  operation 
of  a  kind  of  civic  evolution  which  had  brought  them  forward 
in  their  respective  localities.  The  effect  of  the  property  quali- 
fication laws,  and  of  the  traditionary  respect  for  ability,  prop- 


112      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

erty  and  social  standing  of  which  those  laws  were  at  once  a 
cause  and  a  symptom,  was  to  tend  to  push  such  men  to  the 
front,  and  to  make  it  a  matter  of  course  that  they  should  be 
selected  as  members  of  Congress,  judges,  representatives  in  the 
legislature,  and  for  similar  high  offices.  They  were  not  re- 
quired to  resort  to  trickery  and  intrigue  to  keep  their  places. 
It  was  by  men  of  that  type  that  the  Revolution  had  been  led 
to  success.  It  was  a  fatal  mistake  of  a  later  generation  to 
suppose  that  a  like  class  of  men  could  be  selected  by  a  general 
vote,  and  that  the  good  results  of  what  had  practically  been 
a  system  of  natural  evolution  and  selection  would  be  attained 
by  an  appeal  to  the  suffrages  of  the  unlettered  and  the  unwise. 

No  doubt  there  were  instances  of  corruption  in  American 
public  life  long  before  manhood  suffrage  was  established ;  bank 
scandals  for  instance.  Banks  are  now  chartered  under  a 
general  act.  A  century  ago,  however,  they  were  created  by 
special  acts  of  the  legislature,  and  the  granting  of  their 
charters  was  sometimes  attended  with  charges  of  legislative 
corruption.  As  early  as  1805  at  the  passage  of  the  New  York 
Merchants  Bank  charter,  in  1812  at  the  granting  of  the 
charter  of  the  New  York  Bank  of  America,  and  again  in  1824 
when  the  New  York  Chemical  Bank  was  organized,  such 
charges  were  made.  Such  disclosures  were  plain  warnings  of 
the  dangers  of  laxity  in  public  affairs. 

Population  and  wealth  were  increasing  and  so  was  govern- 
mental expenditure.  Even  as  early  as  1820  there  began  to 
appear  in  the  larger  cities  a  class  of  idle,  vicious,  ignorant 
and  therefore  purchasable  men.  The  possible  means  of  polit- 
ical corruption  and  the  temptations  thereto  were  therefore 
all  in  plain  sight;  and  wisdom  would  have  suggested,  especially 
in  view  of  the  continued  flood  of  immigration,  that  the  greatest 
care  be  taken  to  make  the  source  of  government  in  the 
electorate  as  pure  and  efficient  as  possible.  The  electorate  is 
the  foundation  of  a  free  republic,  whose  political  destiny 
clearly  depends  on  laying  well  that  foundation.  Instead  of 
leaving  the  choice  of  its  materials  to  hazard  and  caprice  it 


EFFECTS  AND  RESULTS  OF  MANHOOD   SUFFRAGE          113 

should  have  been  the  subject  of  conferences  of  the  very  wisest 
among  the  American  statesmen  of  those  days;  the  silly  twaddle 
of  the  extremists  of  the  French  Revolution  about  a  natural 
right  to  vote  should  have  been  publicly  and  systematically 
discredited;  the  doctrine  that  suffrage  is  not  a  right  but  a 
function  should  have  been  formally  stated  and  promulgated 
with  all  the  authority  and  prestige  of  our  ablest  and  most 
prominent  men.  The  people  of  the  older  states  should  have  been 
warned  and  warned  again  by  assiduous  propaganda  against 
the  danger  of  permitting  ignorance  and  incapacity  to  lodge 
at  the  very  bottom  of  the  structure  of  our  government.  The 
people  of  the  newer  states  should  also  have  been  instructed 
that  however  permissible  as  a  temporary  measure  designed  to 
attract  settlers  to  their  vacant  lands,  the  practice  of  universal 
suffrage  is  dangerous  and  should  be  abolished  as  soon  as 
society  was  settled  down  upon  a  permanent  foundation. 
Nothing  of  the  kind  was  done;  on  the  contrary,  it  was  at 
this  critical  time,  just  when  in  view  of  the  changing  conditions 
active  means  should  have  been  taken  to  preserve  the  purity 
of  politics,  that  the  very  opposite  course  was  taken,  and  the 
scheme  of  suffrage  extension  was  put  into  effect  by  a  heedless 
majority  led  by  politicians  who  overruled  the  wise  and  dis- 
interested counsels  of  such  able,  experienced  and  far-seeing 
men  as  the  venerable  John  Adams  of  Massachusetts  and 
Chancellor  Kent  of  New  York. 

The  really  important  result  of  manhood  suffrage  and  one 
which  was  entirely  unforeseen  and  unexpected  by  most  people 
of  the  time  was  the  introduction  into  American  politics  of 
the  purchasable  or  controllable  element  as  a  permanent  fea- 
ture of  the  electorate,  and  the  tremendous  power  thereby 
acquired  by  the  politicians;  and  the  great  defect  in  the  man- 
hood suffrage  doctrine  lay  in  its  completely  ignoring  the  sinis- 
ter possibilities  of  suffrage  extension  in  this  direction.  The 
floater  or  controllable  vote  speedily  became  and  still  is  the 
main  reliance  of  the  political  oligarchy.  Prior  to  1828  the 
activities  of  politicians  had  been  mostly  local.  In  every 


114      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

village  and  small  town  where  offices  are  filled  by  election  there 
is  a  field  for  the  political  activity  of  small  men  of  a  well  known 
and  inferior  type,  lazy,  vociferous  and  more  or  less  unscrupu- 
lous. Under  the  system  of  property  qualification  their  ac- 
tivities were  much  restrained;  most  of  the  rabble  whom  they 
were  able  to  influence  had  no  votes.  With  the  subsequent 
growth  of  the  country  in  wealth  and  population,  the  creation 
of  cities  of  say  over  thirty  thousand  inhabitants,  and  the  in- 
creasing devotion  of  industrious  citizens  to  their  own  affairs, 
the  field  for  the  labors  of  these  political  gentry  perceptibly 
widened ;  but  it  was  manhood  suffrage  and  the  election  of  Jack- 
son which  gave  them  their  final  triumph  and  placed  them  in 
power  all  over  the  land.  The  secret  of  this  power  lies  in  the  or- 
ganization of  this  floater  vote  into  small  local  political  societies 
which  combined  form  at  least  the  nucleus  of  a  species  of  politi- 
cal army  ready  to  do  the  bidding  of  its  officers.  It  consists  prin- 
cipally of  that  considerable  body  of  men  who  have  no  political 
principles  and  no  appreciable  pecuniary  interest  in  the  com- 
munity. As  they  pay  no  taxes  they  are  quite  willing  that  the 
government  outlay  be  increased  provided  that  they  get  a  share 
of  the  plunder.  They  include  the  worthless  classes,  the  very 
ignorant,  the  needy  and  shiftless,  drunkards,  petty  criminals, 
fools,  and  loafers.  Men  with  small  political  ambitions,  men 
who  are  business  failures,  men  too  lazy  to  work,  are  attracted 
to  these  organizations  by  hopes  of  political  office  or  other 
sinecure  employment.  In  this  way,  a  fairly  sufficient  nucleus 
of  controllables  is  obtained.  To  these  may  be  joined  a  class  of 
thriftless  partisans  or  followers  of  the  bosses;  frequenters  of 
saloons  and  small  local  political  clubrooms;  such  men  as  seek 
political  advantage  by  cheap  means  or  have  a  taste  for  low 
politics.  Bribes  are  distributed,  sometimes  in  the  shape  of 
small  loans,  sometimes  as  small  jobs  or  employments  for  them- 
selves, their  relatives,  or  friends.  Their  careless  habits  and 
want  of  principle  and  of  fixed  belief  in  anything,  their  small 
cynicism  and  their  ignorance  of  public  affairs,  make  such 
men  easily  manageable  by  certain  politicians  who  are  not  above 


EFFECTS  AND  RESULTS  OF  MANHOOD   SUFFRAGE          115 

dealings  of  that  character.  The  vote  of  every  man  jack  of 
them  is  as  effective  as  that  of  a  bishop  or  publicist,  and  any 
score  of  them  are  much  more  easily  managed  and  reliable 
than  twenty  bishops  and  publicists  would  be.  The  local  or- 
ganization thus  formed  lives  off  a  traffic  in  votes  and  offices; 
it  buys  votes,  works  them  up  into  elective  offices  and  resells 
them  with  its  trade  mark  to  the  highest  bidder. 

It  was  the  chiefs  of  such  an  organized  rabble  who  seizing 
the  electoral  machinery  rejected  Adams  in  1828,  crying  "Away 
with  him,  give  us  Barabas!"  and  made  Jackson,  the  illiterate 
spoilsman,  President  of  the  United  States.  Adams'  defeat 
ended  the  epoch  of  high-minded,  disinterested  statesmanship 
in  the  White  House.  "His  retirement"  (says  Morse)  "brought 
"to  a  close  a  list  of  Presidents  who  deserved  to  be  called  states- 
"men  in  the  highest  sense  of  that  term,  honorable  men,  pure 
"patriots,  and  with  perhaps  one  exception  all  of  the  first  order 
"of  ability  in  public  affairs."  (Life  of  Adams,  p.  214.)  But 
manhood  suffrage  did  more  by  that  stroke  than  oust  Adams; 
it  destroyed  the  pure  political  system  which  he  represented, 
the  noble  traditions  of  forty  years,  and  deprived  the  nation 
of  all  future  hope  of  seeing  as  long  as  manhood  suffrage  en- 
dures a  Washington,  a  Hamilton  or  an  Adams  in  high  office 
in  this  country.  "It  was"  (says  Merriam)  "by  far  the  most 
"important  change  made  during  the  Jackson  epoch,  for  it  rad- 
ically altered  the  foundation  of  the  Republic."  (American 
Political  Theories,  p.  193.) 

Some  of  the  mischief  attendant  upon  the  institution  of 
manhood  suffrage  must  have  been  apparent  to  the  discerning 
eye  wherever  and  as  soon  as  it  was  adopted,  but  not  its  full 
extent.  Time  was  required  to  get  rid  of  competent  and  hon- 
orable leaders,  traditions  and  standards,  to  replace  them  by 
new  ones,  and  to  invent  catch  words  and  war  cries.  But  as 
time  went  on  this  downward  movement  became  accelerated. 
Facilis  descensus  Averno.  At  first,  little  by  little,  afterwards 
more  rapidly,  the  ambitions  and  creeds  of  the  early  Republic 
were  everywhere  replaced  by  the  sordid  cravings  and  sham 


Il6      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

sentimentalities  of  the  rabble.  In  a  surprisingly  short  time 
we  got  down  into  the  political  mire,  where  we  now  miserably 
splash  about  making  a  stench  with  every  effort  to  escape. 

The  inauguration  of  Jackson  brought  the  new  maleficent 
forces  into  full  play.  Jackson  was  the  embodiment  of  the 
manhood  suffrage  ideal,  and  of  the  growing  revolt  against 
the  government  of  intelligence.  Lecky  says  that  he  "deserves 
"to  be  remembered  as  the  founder  of  the  most  stupendous  sys- 
"tem  of  political  corruption  in  modern  history."  The  follow- 
ing, from  the  pen  of  Roosevelt,  throws  light  on  the  situation: 

"Until  1828  all  the  presidents,  and  indeed  almost  all  the  men 
who  took  the  lead  in  public  life,  alike  in  national  and  in  state 
affairs,  had  been  drawn  from  what  in  Europe  would  have  been 
called  the  'upper  classes.'  They  were  mainly  college-bred  men 
of  high  social  standing,  as  well  educated  as  any  in  the  community, 
usually  rich  or  at  least  well-to-do.  Their  subordinates  in  office  were 
of  much  the  same  material.  It  was  believed,  and  the  belief  was 
acted  upon,  that  public  life  needed  an  apprenticeship  of  training 
and  experience.  Many  of  our  public  men  had  been  able;  almost 
all  had  been  honorable  and  upright.  The  change  of  parties  in 
1800,  when  the  Jeffersonian  Democracy  came  in,  altered  the  policy 
of  the  government,  but  not  the  character  of  the  officials.  In  that 
movement,  though  Jefferson  had  behind  him  the  mass  of  the  people 
as  the  rank  and  file  of  his  party,  yet  all  his  captains  were  still 
drawn  from  among  the  men  in  the  same  social  position  as  himself. 
The  Revolutionary  War  had  been  fought  under  the  leadership 
of  the  colonial  gentry;  and  for  years  after  it  was  over  the  people, 
as  a  whole,  felt  that  their  interests  could  be  safely  intrusted  to 
and  were  identical  with  those  of  the  descendants  of  their  revolu- 
tionary leaders.  The  classes  in  which  were  to  be  found  almost 
all  the  learning,  the  talent,  the  business  activity,  and  the  inherited 
wealth  and  refinement  of  the  country,  had  also  hitherto  contributed 
much  to  the  body  of  its  rulers. 

"The  Jacksonian  Democracy  stood  for  the  revolt  against  these 
rulers;  its  leaders,  as  well  as  their  followers,  all  came  from  the 
mass  of  the  people.  The  majority  of  the  voters  supported  Jackson 
because  they  felt  he  was  one  of  themselves,  and  because  they  under- 
stood that  his  selection  would  mean  the  complete  overthrow  of 


EFFECTS  AND  RESULTS  OF  MANHOOD   SUFFRAGE          1 17 

the  classes  in  power  and  their  retirement  from  the  control  of  the 
government.  There  was  nothing  to  be  said  against  the  rulers 
of  the  day;  they  had  served  the  country  and  all  its  citizens 
well,  and  they  were  dismissed,  not  because  the  voters  could  truth- 
fully allege  any  wrong-doing  whatsoever  against  them,  but  solely 
because,  in  their  purely  private  and  personal  feelings  and  habits 
of  life,  they  were  supposed  to  differ  from  the  mass  of  the  people." 
(Life  of  Bent  on,  pp.  70,  71,  72.) 

President  Jackson's  administration  speedily  gave  discerning 
men  an  opportunity  to  measure  the  standards  and  ideals  of 
the  newly  enfranchised  voters.  He  and  they  considered  the 
public  offices  as  loot  to  be  distributed  among  party  workers. 
With  the  cry  of  "To  the  victors  belong  the  spoils"  the  benefi- 
ciaries of  universal  suffrage  began  the  work  of  plunder  and 
misrule  which  they  have  ever  since  continued.  Jackson  and 
Van  Buren  —  a  slick  politician  —  became  the  leaders  of  the 
mobocratic  movement,  which  they  called  "democratic/'  and  the 
demand  for  offices  became  its  war  cry.  In  his  first  presidential 
message  Jackson  proclaimed  "that  every  citizen  has  a  right 
"to  share  in  the  emoluments  of  the  public  service,"  an  ardent 
bid  for  the  support  of  the  worthless  class  of  men  recently 
granted  the  vote.  We  can  easily  imagine  what  creatures  they 
were.  In  that  early  time  in  a  new  country,  with  opportunity 
knocking  at  every  man's  door,  work  to  be  had  for  the  asking, 
large  farms  given  by  the  government  free  to  settlers,  with 
every  inducement  to  an  honest  man  to  follow  an  industrious 
calling,  they  preferred  to  loaf  around  corners,  to  infest  bar- 
rooms, to  become  members  of  gangs  of  political  rowdies,  to 
beg,  bully  and  coax  for  petty  offices.  Too  lazy  or  incompetent, 
or  both,  to  accumulate  or  even  to  retain  the  small  amount  of 
property  needed  to  qualify  them  as  voters,  their  only  ambition 
was  by  fair  or  foul  means  to  live  off  the  community  with 
the  least  possible  exertion.  After  Jackson's  inauguration  in 
March  1829,  as  we  are  told  by  Ostrogorski: 

"The  vast  popular  army  which  marched  triumphantly  through 
the  streets  of  Washington  dispersed  to  their  homes,  but  one  of 


Il8      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

its  divisions  remained,  the  corps  of  marauders  which  followed  it. 
This  was  composed  of  the  politicians.  They  wanted  their  spoils. 
The  victory  was  due  to  their  efforts  and  as  the  laborer  is  worthy 
of  his  hire,  they  deserved  a  reward.  By  way  of  remuneration 
for  their  services,  they  demanded  places  in  the  administration. 
They  filled  the  air  of  Washington  like  locusts,  they  swarmed 
in  the  halls  and  lobbies  of  the  public  buildings,  in  the  adjoining 
streets  they  besieged  the  residences  of  Jackson  and  his  ministers." 
(Democracy  and  the  Party  System  in  the  United  States.,  p.  21.) 

"It  was"  (says  Schurz)  "as  if  a  victorious  army  had  come  to 
take  possession  of  a  conquered  country,  expecting  their  general 
to  distribute  among  them  the  spoil  of  the  land.  A  spectacle  was 
enacted  never  before  known  in  the  capital  of  the  Republic."  (Life 
of  Clay,  Vol.  I,  p.  334.) 

"A  new  force,  compounded  in  about  equal  proportions  of  corrup- 
tion and  savagery,  was  soon  made  potential,  alike  in  the  battle 
fields  of  politics,  in  the  methods  of  election  and  in  the  processes 
of  administration."  (Lalor's  Cyclopedia;  Spoils  System.) 

Prior  to  Jackson's  time  only  seventy-four  Federal  officials 
had  been  removed  from  office  in  the  entire  history  of  the  gov- 
ernment. In  the  first  year  of  his  administration  he  dismissed 
or  caused  to  be  dismissed  more  than  two  thousand,  and  all 
for  political  reasons.  The  number  of  persons  employed  by 
the  Federal  Government  in  the  first  year  of  John  Quincy 
Adams'  administration  was  about  55,000;  under  Jackson  it 
was  increased  to  over  100,000.  In  his  eight-year  term  he  no 
doubt  doubled  the  number  of  Federal  officials. 

"A  perfect  reign  of  terror  ensued  among  the  officeholders.  In 
the  first  month  of  the  new  administration  more  removals  took  place 
than  during  all  the  previous  administrations  put  together.  Appoint- 
ments were  made  with  little  or  no  attention  to  fitness,  or  even 
honesty,  but  solely  because  of  personal  or  political  services.  Re- 
movals were  not  made  in  accordance  with  any  known  rule  at  all; 
the  most  frivolous  pretexts  were  sufficient,  if  advanced  by  useful 
politicians  who  needed  places  already  held  by  capable  incumbents. 
Spying  and  tale-bearing  became  prominent  features  of  official  life,  the 
meaner  office-holders  trying  to  save  their  own  heads  by  denouncing 


EFFECTS  AND  RESULTS  OF  MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE          IIQ 

others.  The  very  best  men  were  unceremoniously  and  causelessly 
dismissed;  gray-headed  clerks,  who  had  been  appointed  by  the 
earlier  presidents  —  by  Washington,  the  elder  Adams,  and  Jeffer- 
son—  being  turned  off  at  an  hour's  notice,  although  a  quarter  of 
a  century's  faithful  work  in  the  public  service  had  unfitted  them 
to  earn  their  living  elsewhere.  Indeed,  it  was  upon  the  best  and 
most  efficient  men  that  the  blow  fell  heaviest;  the  spies,  tale-bearers 
and  tricksters  often  retained  their  positions.  In  1829  the  public 
service  was,  as  it  always  had  been,  administered  purely  in  the 
interest  of  the  people;  and  the  man  who  was  styled  the  especial 
champion  of  the  people  dealt  that  service  the  heaviest  blow  it  has 
ever  received."  (Roosevelt;  Life  of  Benton,  pp.  82,  83.) 

In  a  speech  in  the  House  of  Representatives  in  1834  Henry 
Clay  referred  to  "the  ravenous  pursuit  after  public  situations 
"not  for  the  sake  of  the  honors  and  the  performance  of  their 
"public  duties  but  as  a  means  of  private  subsistence."  He 
said  that  the  office  hunters  were  so  greedy  that  they  watched 
with  eagerness  the  dying  bed  of  an  actual  incumbent.  Daniel 
Webster,  about  the  time  of  Jackson's  election  said:  "As  far 
"as  I  know  there  is  no  civilized  country  on  earth  in  which, 
"under  change  of  rulers,  there  is  such  an  inquisition  of  spoils 
"as  we  have  witnessed  in  this  free  republic."  From  this  time 
forward  this  degenerate  type  of  office  seekers  became  an  im- 
portant factor  in  every  American  election.  The  victory  of 
Jackson,  says  Farrand, 

"Was  a  victory  of  the  South  and  West,  especially  by  the  latter; 
it  was  a  victory  for  democracy;  but  it  was  also  a  victory  of 
organized  politics  ...  it  seems  to  mark  the  rise  of  a  class  of 
professional  politicians.  These  men  were  not  like  the  old  ruling 
class  whose  members  were  in  politics  largely  from  a  sense  of  duty 
and  public  service,  or  for  the  honor  of  it,  or  even  for  the  sake 
of  power;  but  they  were  in  politics  as  a  business,  not  for  the 
irregular  profits  to  be  derived  therefrom  but  to  make  a  living." 
(Development  of  the  United  States,  pp.  156,  157.) 

It  is  really  astonishing  to  note  how  speedily  manhood  suf- 
frage developed  its  appropriate  mischiefs.  Soon,  with  the 


I2O      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

increase  of  a  purchasable  constituency  the  traffic  in  votes 
became  more  easy  and  common,  and  the  struggle  for  the 
spoils  grew  rapidly  in  intensity.  The  policy  then  put  into 
play  of  making  the  offices  the  spoils  of  politics  produced  in 
a  comparatively  few  years  the  beginnings  of  the  political 
machine. 

"General  Jackson,  the  candidate  of  the  populace,  and  the  rep- 
resentative hero  of  the  ignorant  masses,  instituted  a  new  system 
of  administering  the  government,  in  which  the  personal  interests  be- 
came the  most  important  element,  and  that  organization  and 
strategy  were  developed  which  have  since  become  known  and 
infamous  under  the  name  of  the  political  machine."  (Life  of 
J.  Q.  Adams  by  Morse,  p.  214.) 

About  1830  a  new  flood  of  immigration  set  in  and  the 
politicians  made  it  their  business  to  win  the  favor  of  the 
immigrants  and  to  organize  the  great  foreign  vote  and  especially 
the  Irish  vote  in  New  York  City  and  elsewhere.  This  was 
not  difficult  as  there  was  neither  opposition  norj  competition. 
In  New  York  they  seized  Tammany  Hall,  and  perfected  and 
employed  its  organization  and  similar  organizations  elsewhere; 
they  developed  and  enthroned  political  bosses,  and  established 
and  operated  political  machines.  The  growth  of  this  class 
is  thus  described  by  Ostrogorski: 

"But  in  proportion  as  the  old  generation  which  had  founded  the 
republic  disappeared,  as  the  development  of  the  country  entailed 
that  of  the  public  service,  and  the  political  contingents  increased 
through  extension  of  the  suffrage,  the  scramble  for  the  loaves 
and  fishes  became  closer  and  keener.  There  arose  a  whole  class 
of  men  of  low  degree  who  applied  all  their  energies  in  this  direction, 
and  who  sought  their  means  of  subsistence  in  politics,  and  especially 
in  its  troubled  waters."  (Democracy  and  the  Party  System  in  the 
United  States,  p.  19.) 

And  further: 

"The  old  political  supremacy  wielded  by  the  elite  of  the  nation, 
.  .  .  passed  to  an  innumerable  crowd  of  petty  local  leaders  who  stood 


EFFECTS  AND  RESULTS  OF  MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE          121 

nearer  to  the  masses  but  who  too  often  were  only  needy  adventurers." 
(P.  23.) 

Jackson  was  followed  in  1837  by  his  lieutenant,  Van  Buren, 
who  was  the  first  machine-made  President,  and  the  situation 
is  thus  described  by  Roosevelt: 

"During  Van  Buren's  administration  the  standard  of  public 
honesty,  which  had  been  lowering  with  frightful  rapidity  ever 
since,  with  Adams,  the  men  of  high  moral  tone  had  gone  out  of 
power,  went  almost  as  far  down  as  it  could  go;  although  things 
certainly  did  not  change  for  the  better  under  Tyler  and  Polk. 
Not  only  was  there  the  most  impudent  and  unblushing  rascality 
among  the  public  servants  of  the  nation,  but  the  people  them- 
selves, through  their  representatives  in  the  state  legislatures,  went 
to  work  to  swindle  their  honest  creditors.  Many  states,  in  the 
rage  for  public  improvements,  had  contracted  debts  which  they  now 
refused  to  pay;  in  many  cases  they  were  unable,  or  at  least  so 
professed  themselves,  even  to  pay  the  annual  interest.  The  debts 
of  the  states  were  largely  held  abroad;  they  had  been  converted 
into  stock  and  held  in  shares,  which  had  gone  into  a  great  number 
of  hands,  and  now,  of  course,  became  greatly  depreciated  in  value. 
It  is  a  painful  and  shameful  page  in  our  history;  and  every  man 
connected  with  the  repudiation  of  the  states'  debts  ought,  if  remem- 
bered at  all,  to  be  remembered  only  with  scorn  and  contempt." 

Towards  the  close  of  Van  Buren's  administration,  complaint 
was  made  of  waste  of  public  money. 

"There  was  good  ground  for  their  complaint,  as  the  waste  and 
peculation  in  some  of  the  departments  had  been  very  great.  .  .  . 
While  they  had  been  in  power  the  character  of  the  public  service 
had  deteriorated  frightfully,  both  as  regarded  its  efficiency  and 
infinitely  more  as  regarded  its  honesty;  and  under  Van  Buren  the 
amount  of  money  stolen  by  the  public  officers,  compared  to  the 
amount  handed  in  to  the  treasury,  was  greater  than  ever  before  or 
since.  For  this  the  Jacksonians  were  solely  and  absolutely  re- 
sponsible; they  drove  out  the  merit  system  of  making  appointments, 
and  introduced  the  'spoils'  system  in  its  place;  and  under  the  latter 
they  chose  a  peculiarly  dishonest  and  incapable  set  of  officers,  whose 
sole  recommendation  was  to  be  found  in  knavish  trickery  and  low 


122      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

cunning  that  enabled  them  to  manage  the  ignorant  voters  who 
formed  the  backbone  of  Jackson's  party."  (Life  of  Benton,  pp.  219, 
230,  231.) 

In  1841  Harrison  succeeded  Van  Buren;  there  was  a  change 
of  parties;  the  Democrats  went  out,  and  the  Whigs,  who  had 
inveighed  against  the  spoils  system,  took  their  places.  But 
the  expected  reform  did  not  come  off;  it  was  no  longer  a  ques- 
tion of  parties  or  policies ;  the  electorate  itself  had  been  hope- 
lessly degraded  by  manhood  suffrage,  and  the  leaders  of  both 
parties  were  unable,  if  they  wished,  to  purify  politics;  they 
were  obliged  either  to  adopt  manhood  suffrage  low  methods, 
or  go  out  of  public  life.  In  vain  Clay,  the  great  Whig  leader, 
thundered  in  Congress  against  the  spoils  system. 

"In  solemn  words  of  prophecy,  he  (Clay)  painted  the  effects 
which  the  systematic  violation  of  this  principle  (Government  is 
a  trust),  inaugurated  by  Jackson,  must  inevitably  bring  about; 
political  contests  turned  into  scrambles  for  plunder;  a  system 
of  universal  rapacity,  substituted  for  a  system  of  responsibility; 
favoritism  for  fitness;  a  Congress  corrupted,  the  press  corrupted, 
general  corruption;  until  the  substance  of  free  government  having 
disappeared,  some  pretorian  band  would  arise,  and  with  the  gen- 
eral concurrence  of  a  distracted  people,  put  an  end  to  useless 
forms."  (Schurz,  Life  of  Clay,  p.  335,  Vol.  I.) 

Clay's  influence  in  Congress  was  enormous,  but  he  was 
powerless  to  cure  the  inherent  rottenness  of  a  manhood  suf- 
frage constituency.  The  pressure  of  the  spoilsmen  upon  the 
Whig  Harrison's  administration  equalled  or  surpassed  that 
upon  the  Democrat  Jackson,  and  is  said  to  have  caused 
Harrison's  death.  It  is  thus  described  by  Ostrogorski: 

"When  Harrison  took  up  his  abode  in  the  White  House,  the 
rush  became  tremendous;  the  applicants  literally  pursued  the  min- 
isters and  the  president  day  and  night;  they  besieged  the  former 
in  their  offices  or  in  their  homes,  and  even  in  the  streets;  a  good 
many  candidates  for  offices  slept  in  the  corridors  of  the  White 
House  to  catch  the  president  the  next  morning  as  soon  as  he  got 
up."  (Democracy  and  the  Party  System  in  the  U.S.,  p.  36.) 


EFFECTS  AND  RESULTS  OF  MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE          123 

Schurz  thus  describes  the  operation  of  the  manhood  suf- 
frage spoils  system  as  it  had  developed  in  ten  or  twelve  years 
after  its  introduction  in  1829: 

"Not  only  were  the  officers  of  the  government  permitted  to  become 
active  workers  in  party  politics,  but  they  were  made  to  understand 
that  active  partisanship  was  one  —  perhaps  the  principal  one  — 
of  their  duties.  Political  assessments  upon  office  holders  with  all 
the  inseparable  scandals  became  at  once  a  part  of  the  system. 
The  spoils  politician  in  office  grasped  almost  everywhere  the  reins 
of  local  leadership  in  the  party.  .  .  .  The  spoils  system  bore  a 
crop  of  corruption  such  as  had  never  been  known  before.  Swart- 
wout,  the  collector  of  customs  at  New  York,  one  of  General  Jack- 
son's favorites,  was  discovered  to  be  a  defaulter  to  the  amount  of 
nearly  $1,250,000,  and  the  District  Attorney  of  the  U.  S.  at  New 
York  to  the  amount  of  $72,000.  Almost  all  land  officers  were 
defaulters.  .  .  .  Officials  seemed  to  help  themselves  to  the  public 
money,  not  only  without  shame,  but  in  many  cases  apparently 
without  any  fear  of  punishment."  (Life  of  Clay,  Vol.  II, 
pp.  183,  184.) 

This  from  Roosevelt  referring  to  1838: 

"The  Jacksonian  Democracy  was  already  completely  ruled  by  a 
machine,  of  which  the  most  important  cogs  were  the  countless 
office-holders,  whom  the  spoils  system  had  already  converted  into 
a  band  of  well-drilled  political  mercenaries.  A  political  machine 
can  only  be  brought  to  a  state  of  high  perfection  in  a  party  con- 
taining very  many  ignorant  and  uneducated  voters;  and  the  Jack- 
sonian Democracy  held  in  its  ranks  the  mass  of  the  ignorance  of 
the  country."  (Life  of  Benton,  p.  185.) 

Some  writers  put  all  the  blame  on  Jackson  for  the  over- 
throw of  the  old  lofty  ideals  and  standards  of  Federal  politics, 
which  occurred  in  his  presidency.  But  Jackson,  though 
coarse  and  ignorant,  was  not  evil-minded  nor  intentionally 
unpatriotic;  nor  was  he,  even  if  so  disposed,  gifted  with  the 
power  of  corrupting  the  entire  politics  of  the  country.  The 
mischiefs  which  broke  out  in  his  time  were  nation-wide  and 
must  have  been  due  to  a  nation-wide  cause.  The  fact  is  that 


124      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

the  party  of  which  Jackson  happened  to  be  the  leader  was 
caught  in  a  movement,  the  full  meaning  and  effect  of  which  was 
unsuspected  by  everybody.  The  wash  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion had  reached  us  and  had  swept  manhood  suffrage  into  our 
boat.  Schurz  says  that  in  Jackson's  administration  there  was 
infused  into  the  government  and  the  whole  body  politic  a 
spirit  of  lawlessness  which  outlived  Jackson,  and  of  which 
the  demoralizing  influence  is  felt  to  this  day;  that  barbarous 
habits  were  then  first  introduced  into  the  field  of  national 
affairs,  and  selfishness  made  a  ruling  motive  in  politics,  re- 
sulting in  a  crop  of  corruption  which  startled  the  country. 
All  this  is  true;  the  mistake  is  in  ascribing  to  Jackson  or 
to  any  one  person  a  widespread  deterioration  no  one  man 
could  possibly  have  accomplished.  For  such  a  far-reaching 
effect,  a  universal  cause  was  needed;  and  that  that  cause 
was  manhood  suffrage  no  candid  investigator  can  possibly 
doubt.  McLaughlin  in  his  Life  of  Cass  (p.  136)  recognizes 
that  the  introduction  of  the  spoils  system  in  1829  cannot  be 
solely  charged  to  Jackson  or  to  Van  Buren;  that  they  were  the 
mere  conduits  through  which  was  conducted  into  federal  poli- 
tics the  flood  of  corruption  produced  by  other  causes.  But  those 
causes  he  fails  to  specify.  "It  came  by  natural  evolution 
"...  the  offices  of  trust  were  handed  over  to  the  men  who 
"brought  the  greatest  pressure  to  bear,  and  could  make  plain 
"their  political  influences  to  the  scullions  of  the  kitchen  cabinet. 
"If  the  student  of  American  politics  is  to  understand  the  place 
"which  the  spoils  system  holds  he  must  see  that  its  introduction 
"was  a  natural  phase  in  our  national  development."  And  he 
describes  the  brutality  of  "the  scrambling,  punch-drinking  mob 
which  invaded  Washington  at  Jackson's  inauguration."  It 
needs  no  Sherlock  Holmes,  however,  to  tell  us  that  the  advent 
of  this  mob  and  their  possession  of  the  administration  would 
not  have  been  "a  natural  phase  in  our  national  development" 
had  it  not  been  for  the  specific  operation  of  the  new  institution 
of  manhood  suffrage.  The  influences  which  it  introduced  in  our 
political  structure  were  favorable  to  the  spoils  system,  which 


EFFECTS  AND  RESULTS  OF  MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE          125 

was  popularly  felt  to  be  a  proper  result  of  the  filling  of  all 
offices  by  vote  of  the  masses.  The  Cyclopedia  of  American  Gov- 
ernment states  that  the  people  favored  the  introduction  of  the 
spoils  system.  As  Marcy  said  in  a  speech  about  that  time, 
<kThey  see  nothing  wrong  in  the  rule  that  to  the  victors  belong 
"the  spoils  of  the  enemy."  In  a  word  the  Democratic  spirit 
ignored  efficiency  in  office  as  well  as  in  the  voter;  and  the  office 
became  what  it  still  continues  to  be,  a  reward,  a  token  of  grati- 
tude for  political  activity. 

The  lamentable  effects  of  manhood  suffrage  continued  in 
full  sweep  after  the  death  of  Harrison  and  the  return  of  the 
Jackson  Democracy  to  power  under  Polk  in  1845.  The  re- 
sultant flagrant  misgovernment  caused  growing  popular  re- 
sentment which  might  have  produced  valuable  results  had 
it  not  been  for  the  slavery  agitation  which  soon  drove  all  other 
political  questions  into  the  background.  Already  in  1843  the 
dissatisfaction  of  large  numbers  was  displayed  by  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  American  or  Knownothing  party,  which  born  in 
New  York  and  baptized  with  blood  in  Philadelphia  rapidly 
spread  through  the  country.  Formed  ostensibly  to  check 
the  growing  power  of  Irish  Roman  Catholic  politicians,  its 
real  grievance  was  manhood  suffrage  misrule.  Its  leaders  mis- 
took the  cause  of  the  new  political  scandals.  They  wrongly 
attributed  them  exclusively  to  the  Irish;  they  were  really  due 
to  the  effect  of  the  voting  power  of  the  newly  enfranchised 
and  organized  political  floaters,  both  foreign  and  American. 
Polk's  election  was  secured  by  the  machine  in  1844: 

"By  the  almost  solid  foreign  vote  still  unfit  for  the  duties  of 
American  citizenship;  by  the  vicious  and  criminal  classes  in  all 
the  great  cities  of  the  North  and  in  New  Orleans;  by  the  corrupt 
politicians,  who  found  ignorance  and  viciousness  tools  ready  forged 
to  their  hands,  wherewith  to  perpetrate  the  gigantic  frauds  with- 
out which  the  election  would  have  been  lost."  (Roosevelt,  Life  of 
Bent  on,  pp.  290,  291.) 

On  Pierce's  inauguration  in  1853,  saYs  Rhodes,  "the  importu- 
nate begging  for  official  positions  in  a  republic  where  it  was  so 


126      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

easy  to  earn  a  living  was  nothing  less  than  disgraceful.  Office 
seekers  crowded  the  public  receptions  of  the  President,  and 
while  greeting  him  in  the  usual  way,  attempted  at  the  same  time 
to  urge  their  claims,  actually  thrusting  their  petitions  into  his 
hands."  (Rhodes,  I,  339.) 

Meantime  the  bribery  of  voters  and  of  legislatures  rapidly 
grew  more  common  and  shameless,  and  about  this  time  the 
purchase  of  legislation  began  to  be  a  scandal.  Referring  to 
this  period,  Prof.  Reinsch  says: 

"In  those  earlier  days  things  were  often  managed  with  little 
adroitness.  There  was  much  indiscriminate  and  broadcast  bribery; 
to  buy  men  for  a  moderate  amount  per  vote  was  the  acme  of 
ambition  to  the  successful  lobbyist."  (American  Legislatures  and 
Legislative  Methods,  p.  231.) 

And  Farrand  writes,  referring  to  the  same  period: 

"For  the  first  time  in  contemporary  accounts  much  was  made 
of  the  vile  corruption  of  politics,  the  charge  being  with  the  growth 
of  a  class  of  professional  politicians  and  the  great  increase  of 
wealth  that  money  was  used  improperly,  both  for  bribing  of 
voters  and  for  accomplishing  the  miscarriage  of  justice."  (Develop- 
ment of  United  States,  p.  209.) 

Under  the  united  influence  of  manhood  suffrage  and  its 
offspring  the  spoils  system,  corruption,  rascality  and  official 
incapacity  increased  enormously  as  time  went  on.  The  his- 
torian Rhodes  writing  of  the  decade  from  1850  to  1860  says 
that  "plentiful  evidence  of  the  popular  opinion  that  dishonesty 
prevailed  may  be  found  in  the  literature  of  the  time."  And 
that,  "the  executive  and  legislative  departments  of  the  national 
"government  were  undoubtedly  as  much  tainted  with  corrup- 
tion between  1850-60  as  they  are  at  the  present  time."  (1904.) 
Senator  Benton  of  Missouri  writing  in  1850  said: 

"Now  office  is  sought  for  support  and  for  the  repair  of  dilap- 
idated fortunes;  applicants  obtrude  themselves,  and  prefer  claims 
to  office.  Their  personal  condition  and  party  services,  not  quali- 
fication, are  made  the  basis  of  the  demand;  and  the  crowds  which 


EFFECTS  AND  RESULTS  OF  MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE          127 

congregate  at  Washington,  at  the  change  of  an  administration,  sup- 
plicants for  office  are  humiliating  to  behold,  and  threaten  to  change 
the  contest  of  parties  from  a  contest  for  principle  into  a  struggle 
for  plunder."  (Thirty  Years  in  Congress,  Vol.  I,  p.  81.) 

And  further:  (p.  163). 

"I  deprecate  the  effect  of  such  sweeping  removals  at  each  revolu- 
tion of  parties  and  believe  it  is  having  a  deplorable  effect  both 
upon  the  purity  of  elections  and  the  distribution  of  office,  and 
taking  both  out  of  the  hands  of  the  people  and  throwing  the 
management  of  one  and  the  enjoyment  of  the  other  into  most 
unfit  hands.  I  consider  it  as  working  a  deleterious  change  in  the 
government." 

About  this  time  public  officials  were  assessed  for  political 
contributions ;  afterwards  the  offices  were  put  on  sale.  "Under 
"Buchanan  (1857-1861)  was  established  the  practice  of  taxing 
"federal  office  holders.  The  politicians  after  the  war  carried 
"it  to  perfection.  There  were  five  categories  of  assessments 
"on  salaries;  federal,  state,  municipal,  ward  and  district." 
(Ostrogorski;  Democracy,  p.  68.) 

The  politicians  under  Lincoln  were  no  whit  behind  their 
predecessors.  The  new  administration  machine  went  merrily  to 
work  right  after  March  4,  1861.  Then  followed  such  scandals 
as  might  naturally  be  expected  from  the  appointment  as  Secre- 
tary of  War  of  Simon  Cameron,  the  rapacious  and  corrupt 
Pennsylvania  boss.  Carbines  were  sold  by  the  Government 
at  $3.50  each  and  repurchased  at  $15,  and  the  contract  re- 
peated, the  second  purchase  being  at  $22.  Large  sums  were 
spent  without  accounting  in  violation  of  law.  Brothers-in- 
law  were  in  luck.  Cameron's  brother-in-law  was  president  of 
a  railroad  which  in  one  year  exacted  from  the  Government  a 
million  or  more  for  excessive  transportation  charges.  One 
Morgan,  the  brother-in-law  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
was  made  purchasing  agent  for  railroad  supplies,  although  he 
was  absolutely  without  experience  in  that  line.  Other  politi- 
cians received  similar  favors.  A  great  scandal  was  caused 


128      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

by  the  issuing  of  permits  for  trading  with  the  enemy  under 
which  supplies  to  numerous  amounts  sufficient  to  furnish  whole 
armies  were  sent  through  the  rebel  lines.  The  machine  was 
able  to  obtain  the  signature  of  Lincoln  himself  to  these  permits. 
Foreign  affairs  were  neglected  in  order  that  the  offices  might 
be  distributed.  (Stickney;  Organized  Democracy,  Chap.  III.) 

Coming  to  the  next  decade  we  find  a  systematic  corruption 
of  the  electorate,  a  large  part  whereof  was  willing  no  doubt  to 
be  corrupted.  Ostrogorski  says  that  "after  the  (Civil)  War 
athe  exasperation  of  party  spirit  and  the  extraordinary  de- 
"velopment  of  the  spoils  system  led  to  bribery  being  used  as 
"a  regular  weapon.  .  .  .  The  parties  often  secure,  in  much 
"the  same  way,  the  votes  of  the  members  of  the  labor  unions; 
"the  leaders  'sell  them  out'  to  the  parties  without  the  work- 
"men  having  a  suspicion  of  it.  The  voters  who  deliberately 
"sell  themselves  belong  in  the  cities,  mostly  to  the  dregs  of 
"the  population." 

And  also  referring  to  states  where  the  vote  was  close: 

"These  states  ranked  among  the  doubtful  ones,  four  or  five  in 
number,  are  drenched  with  money  during  the  presidential  cam- 
paign for  buying  the  'floaters,'  the  wavering  electors  who  sell 
themselves  to  the  highest  bidder."  (Pp.  206,  207.) 

During  all  this  period  and  down  to  the  present  time,  the 
spoils  system  built  on  manhood  suffrage  has  been  the  dominant 
force  in  our  public  life. 

"It  is"  (says  Bryce)  "these  spoilsmen  who  have  depraved  and 
distorted  the  mechanism  of  politics.  It  is  they  who  pack  the  pri- 
maries and  run  the  conventions  so  as  to  destroy  the  freedom  of 
popular  choice,  they  who  contrive  and  execute  the  election  frauds 
which  disgrace  some  States  and  cities  —  repeating  and  ballot  stuffing, 
obstruction  of  the  polls  and  fraudulent  countings  in. 

In  making  every  administrative  appointment  a  matter  of  party 
claim  and  personal  favour,  the  system  has  lowered  the  general  tone 
of  public  morals,  for  it  has  taught  men  to  neglect  the  interests  of 
the  community,  and  made  insincerity  ripen  into  cynicism.  No- 
body supposes  that  merit  has  anything  to  do  with  promotion,  or 


EFFECTS  AND  RESULTS  OF  MANHOOD   SUFFRAGE          I2Q 

believes  the  pretext  alleged  for  an  appointment.  Politics  has  been 
turned  into  the  art  of  distributing  salaries  so  as  to  secure  the  max- 
imum of  support  from  friends  with  the  minimum  of  offence  to 
opponents.  To  this  art  able  men  have  been  forced  to  bend  their 
minds:  on  this  Presidents  and  ministers  have  spent  those  hours 
which  were  demanded  by  the  real  problems  of  the  country."  (Amer- 
ican Commonwealth,  Vol.  II,  p.  137.) 

Meantime  the  politicians,  not  content  with  the  original  opera- 
tion of  manhood  suffrage  on  the  spoils  of  office,  have  be- 
thought them  of  adding  to  the  fruits  of  these  operations  by  in- 
creasing still  further  the  number  of  elective  offices.  It  has  been 
easy  to  persuade  to  this  move  many  of  that  small  number  of 
intelligent  voters  who  trouble  themselves  about  such  matters. 
The  pretence  of  extending  the  sway  of  democracy  and  liberty 
which  has  always  been  used  to  cover  schemes  of  public  plunder 
was  found  sufficient  once  more.  On  this  pretence  the  ad- 
ministrative and  judicial  offices  of  various  states  were  made 
elective  instead  of  appointive  as  formerly.  As  Ostrogorski 
says  (Idem,  p.  25): 

"The  democratic  impulse  which  carried  Jackson  into  power  had 
forced  the  way,  in  the  constitutional  sphere,  for  two  important 
changes:  the  introduction  of  universal  suffrage,  and  the  very  con- 
siderable extension  of  the  elective  principle  to  public  offices." 

Under  this  system  which  still  obtains  in  many  states,  scores 
of  state,  county  and  municipal  offices  are  offered  at  every 
election  to  the  choice  of  the  mass  of  electors  who  on  approach- 
ing the  polls  find  themselves  called  on  to  select  in  addition 
to  the  members  of  the  state  legislature  and  Congress  and 
state  governors,  a  dozen  or  a  score  of  administrative  officials 
and  judges.  Sometimes  they  are  invited  to  vote  for  an  at- 
torney-general, a  state  engineer  and  surveyor,  a  state  treasurer, 
a  state  comptroller,  half  a  dozen  judges  and  justices,  a  district 
attorney,  a  sheriff,  a  mayor,  a  city  treasurer,  a  couple  of 
coroners,  besides  a  governor,  a  state  senator,  and  assemblymen 
and  aldermen,  say  twenty  in  all.  Sometimes  as  at  an  election 


I3O      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

in  St.  Louis,  the  list  contains  thirteen  city  officials  to  be  elected, 
besides  state  officers  and  congressmen.  In  the  cities  of  Ohio 
it  sometimes  includes  an  average  of  twenty-two  officers  at  each 
yearly  election.  In  a  small  town  near  New  York  there  are 
about  fifteen  local  offices  to  be  filled  at  an  election  besides 
a  dozen  or  two  state  and  federal  offices  and  so  on  throughout 
the  Union.  "Let  the  people  rule,"  say  the  politicians,  because 
when  the  people  attempt  to  rule  by  choosing  administrative 
officials,  it  is  really  the  politicians  who  make  the  choice.  It  is 
doubtful  if  there  ever  was  a  voter,  even  a  professional  poli- 
tician, who  was  sufficiently  well  acquainted  with  each  of  the 
candidates  on  such  a  ticket  and  with  his  duties  to  enable  him 
to  decide  intelligently  upon  his  merits  as  compared  with  his 
rivals.  Certainly  not  one  in  a  hundred  is  competent  to  do  so. 
Remember,  too,  that  the  voter  has  no  real  choice  in  the  original 
selection  of  these  candidates;  that  they  are  all  chosen  before 
the  election  by  party  managers  in  secret  conclave,  and  forced 
through  the  primaries  by  the  power  of  the  machine;  that  if 
the  voter  rejects  one  rogue  or  incapable  whom  he  happens  to 
know  or  has  heard  of,  he  can  do  no  more  after  all  than  to  vote 
for  the  other  party  candidate  who  is  quite  likely  to  be  likewise 
of  the  same  evil  stripe.  The  reader  can  see  that  manhood  suf- 
frage applied  in  this  way  is  an  infallible  method  of  making 
easy  and  safe  the  selection  of  incompetent  rascals  for  public 
office.  For  what  the  voter  usually  does  in  such  case  is  to  vote 
the  whole  party  ticket,  rogues,  fools  and  all,  realizing  that  if 
he  fails  to  do  so  the  rival  set  of  scamps  and  incompetents  will 
be  the  sole  gainers. 

Subsequent  to  1850  and  by  degrees  the  army  of  American 
politicians  became  more  and  more  skilled  and  specialized  in 
their  craft;  they  became  highly  organized  and  disciplined; 
having  leaders,  officers,  rules  and  traditions.  Men  went  into 
politics  in  youth  as  a  profession,  grew  old  and  rich  in  its  prac- 
tice, and  trained  up  their  deputies  and  successors.  The  politi- 
cal leader  became  known  as  the  Boss;  a  group  of  Bosses  as  a 
Ring;  a  combination  of  Rings  as  the  Machine  whose  power 


EFFECTS  AND  RESULTS  OF  MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE          131 

is  sometimes  irresistible.  Especially  after  the  Civil  War 
(1865)  the  power  of  the  bosses  increased,  and  they  habitually 
after  that  time  distributed  nominations,  collected  assessments, 
and  gave  orders  to  state  legislatures.  The  system  thus  per- 
fected has  continued  to  the  present  day  and  is  everywhere 
working  smoothly.  The  American  people  have  now  practi- 
cally ceased  resistance  to  the  bosses.  In  a  letter  addressed  to 
Francis  A.  Walker  signed  by  William  Cullen  Bryant,  Carl 
Schurz  and  others,  dated  April  6,  1876,  reference  is  made  to 
"the  widespread  corruption  in  our  public  servants  which  has 
"disgraced  the  republic  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  and  threatens 
"to  poison  the  vitality  of  our  institutions."  On  March  31, 
1876,  Schurz  writes  to  Bristow:  "We  have  been  so  deeply  dis- 
graced in  the  estimation  of  mankind  by  the  exposures  of  cor- 
"ruption  in  our  public  servants,  and  the  faith  of  many  of  our 
"people  in  our  institutions  has  been  so  dangerously  shaken." 
David  Dudley  Field  of  New  York,  writing  in  1877,  says: 

"The  corruption  of  American  politics  is  a  phrase  in  everybody's 
mouth,  not  only  in  this  country,  but  in  others.  .  .  .  We  see 
offices  claimed  and  bestowed  not  for  merit  but  for  party  work, 
and  as  a  natural  consequence  we  see  the  public  service  inefficient 
and  disordered.  We  see  venal  legislatures  and  executive  officers 
receiving  gifts.  .  .  .  We  see  legislatures,  state  and  federal,  guar- 
anteeing monopolies  to  corporations  and  individuals,  making  gifts  of 
the  public  lands  and  bestowing  subsidies  from  the  public  treasury; 
we  see  the  plunder  of  local  communities  by  what  is  called  local 
taxation,  and  we  see  demagogues  clamoring  for  largesses  under  pre- 
tense, perhaps,  of  equalizing  bounties,  or  other  equally  dishonest 
pretenses.  .  .  .  The  condition  of  our  civil  service  is  a  scandal 
to  the  country.  .  .  .  Taking  the  country  together  two-thirds  of 
the  present  official  force  would  do  all  the  work  needed  and  do  it 
better  than  it  is  now  done." 

And  proceeding,  he  spoke  of  politics  as  then  pursued  as  a 
branch  of  business,  and  the  office  holders  as  a  band  of  mer- 
cenaries who  were  the  supporters  of  misgovernment.  (Cor- 
ruption in  Politics;  International  Review,  Jan.,  1877.) 


132      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE  UNITED   STATES 

Physicians  tell  us  that  from  a  source  of  disease,  however 
small  and  obscure,  a  disordered  tooth  for  instance,  an  infection 
may  spread  through  the  body  until  despite  its  apparent  vigor,  it 
in  undermined  and  finally  destroyed.  The  corruption  begun  in 
the  electorate,  has  spread  beyond  the  political  system  and  has 
reached  and  invaded  business  life.  This  progress  is  so  easy  to 
trace  that  every  business  man  in  the  country  is  familiar  with 
it.  Political  leaders  and  bosses  are  purchasable  and  so  are 
often  machine-made  legislators.  Hence  the  two-fold  evil,  on 
the  one  hand  the  bribery  of  legislators  and  public  officials,  and 
on  the  other,  threats  and  acts  of  oppression  by  the  latter  so 
as  to  compel  business  to  pay  tribute.  These  practices  are  so 
notorious  and  instances  of  them  are  so  familiar,  many  of  them 
referred  to  in  this  volume,  that  at  this  point  it  is  sufficient  to 
call  attention  to  their  frequency  and  extent.  Again  quoting 
Bryce: 

"In  the  United  States  the  money  power  acts  by  corrupting  some- 
times the  voter,  sometimes  the  juror,  sometimes  the  legislator, 
sometimes  a  whole  party;  for  large  subscriptions  and  promises  of 
political  support  have  been  known  to  influence  a  party  to  pro- 
cure or  refrain  from  such  legislation  as  wealth  desires  or  fears. 
The  rich,  it  is  but  fair  to  say,  and  especially  great  corporations, 
have  not  only  enterprises  to  promote  but  dangers  to  escape  from  at 
the  hands  of  unscrupulous  demagogues  or  legislators."  (American 
Commonwealth,  Vol.  II,  p.  614.) 

In  1889  George  William  Curtis,  referring  to  the  United 
States,  approvingly  quoted  the  saying  of  a  United  States  Sena- 
tor made  in  1876  that  "the  only  product  of  her  institutions  in 
"which  she  surpassed  all  others  beyond  question  was  her  cor- 
ruption." In  1890  he  said  that  political  corruption  "has  in- 
"creased,  is  increasing  and  ought  to  be  diminished."  In  1891 
Curtis  said  that  "corruption  in  our  politics  was  never  felt  to  be 
"so  general,  so  vast  and  penetrating,  as  during  the  last  quarter 
"of  a  century."  In  the  Omaha  Populist  platform  of  1892,  it 
was  declared  that: 


EFFECTS  AND  RESULTS  OF  MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE          133 


"We  are  meeting  in  the  midst  of  a  nation  brought  to  the  verge 
of  moral,  political  and  material  ruin.  Corruption  dominates  the 
ballot  box,  the  Legislators,  the  Congress  and  touches  even  the  ermine 
of  the  bench.  People  are  demoralized.  .  .  .  The  fruits  of  the 
toil  of  millions  are  boldly  stolen  to  build  up  colossal  fortunes. 
...  From  the  same  prolific  womb  of  political  justice  we  breed 
x  the  two  great  classes  —  tramps  and  millionaires." 

We  forbear  to  quote  later  opinions  or  authorities  on  this 
branch  of  our  subject  at  this  point,  though  contemporary 
magazines  and  newspapers  afford  them  in  great  number,  be- 
cause we  have  wished  as  far  as  possible  to  keep  within  the 
domain  of  history  and  to  avoid  the  doubtful  field  of  present- 
day  partisan  political  controversy.  If  proof  of  the  evil  of 
present  conditions  were  desirable  it  is  sufficiently  found  be- 
tween the  covers  of  this  book,  but  such  proof  is  quite  unneces- 
sary. The  unsatisfactory  character  of  the  political  life  of 
today  is  as  well  known  to  the  intelligent  reader  as  to  the  writer 
or  to  anyone  else.  There  has  been  no  betterment  of  recent 
years.  The  activities  of  our  political  masters  have  kept  pace 
with  the  march  of  prosperity,  the  increase  of  the  nation's 
wealth  and  population,  and  the  growth  of  its  great  cities.  There 
is  today  practically  no  political  liberty  in  the  United  States. 
The  country  is  badly,  corruptly  and  shamefully  ruled  by  a 
class,  an  oligarchy,  one  of  the  most  corrupt  and  tyrannical  at 
present  existing  anywhere,  and  composed  of  small  groups  of 
weak  and  tricky  men  not  five  per  cent  of  whom  under  a  sys- 
tem of  properly  qualified  suffrage  would  have  votes  at  all.  In- 
stead of  free  elections  to  public  office  what  actually  occurs  is 
as  described  by  Dr.  Charles  P.  Clark: 

"Two  organized  bands  of  active,  intriguing  and  self-seeking 
politicians,  composing  less  than  one  hundredth  part  of  the  whole 
voting  population,  dispute  with  each  other,  and  one  of  them  obtains 
the  selection  —  mark  the  pregnant  meaning  of  the  word  —  of  every 
public  functionary."  (The  Machine  Abolished,  p.  29.) 

Having  identified  the  source  and  origin  of  this  evil  political 
condition  with  the  institution  of  manhood  suffrage  and  traced 


134      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

the  mischief  down  to  the  present-day  generation,  let  us  pro- 
ceed to  the  next  chapter  wherein  will  be  set  forth  a  brief  de- 
scription or  example  of  the  nature  and  characteristics  of  the 
professional  politician,  the  political  Boss,  the  political  Ma- 
chine, the  political  Ring,  and  the  Lobby;  all  of  which  beautiful 
creations  are  the  product  or  result  direct  or  indirect  of  that 
much  vaunted  institution,  manhood  suffrage.  It  is  doubtful 
if  any  of  them  can  be  found  elsewhere  than  in  America;  cer- 
tainly they  reach  their  highest  development  in  the  United 
States. 


CHAPTER   X 

SHORT  SKETCHES  OF  MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  PROGENY;  THE  POLI- 
TICIAN AND  THE  BOSS;  THEIR  CREATIONS  THE  RING 
AND  THE  MACHINE;  AND  THEIR  BY-PRODUCT,  THE  LOBBY 

No  account  of  manhood  suffrage  would  be  complete  with- 
out proper  mention  of  the  politicians  and  their  work,  for  they 
are  the  essential  product  of  the  system,  its  distinctive  feature 
and  its  condemnation.  It  is  they  who  manage  the  controllable 
vote  created  by  manhood  suffrage  and  without  which  they 
themselves  would  cease  to  exist;  and  it  is  they  who  nurse  that 
vote,  feed  it  and  train  and  fashion  it  to  their  malign  uses  as 
an  instrument  of  perfect  control  of  American  political  life. 
The  politicians  are  absolutely  indispensable  to  the  working 
of  the  present  political  system  in  the  United  States.  They 
handle  the  voters  like  cattle  intended  for  the  stock  market; 
like  the  animals  the  voters  go  willingly  or  half  willingly  to  the 
places  prepared  for  them,  in  pursuance  of  plans  in  which 
they  take  no  part,  which  they  do  not  understand.  The  voters 
are  bargained  for  and  delivered  in  batches  just  as  the  animals 
are,  and  the  managers  and  their  subordinates  in  charge  are 
the  political  masters  of  the  country. 

These  managers  from  the  very  first  have  been  a  sordid 
lot.  De  Tocqueville,  writing  about  1835,  when  the  manhood 
suffrage  regime  was  only  ten  years  old  said  of  them,  "I  have 
"heard  of  patriotism  in  the  United  States,  and  I  have  found 
"true  patriotism  among  the  people,  but  never  among  the  leaders 
"of  the  people."  (Democracy  in  America,  Vol.  I.)  The  pres- 
ent-day professional  politicians  may  be  as  lacking  in  patriotism 
as  the  political  leaders  of  De  Tocqueville's  time,  but  taken 

135 


136      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

all  together  they  are  and  have  always  been  a  picturesque  com- 
pany, who  have  been  frequently  described  by  able  writers, 
from  some  of  whom  extracts  will  here  be  given  for  the  delec- 
tation and  information  of  the  reader. 

There  are  of  course  high  and  low  grade  politicians,  small 
and  large  leaders  and  managers  and  various  grades  between; 
besides  retainers  and  subordinates,  known  as  captains  or 
henchmen  with  their  followers  or  heelers.  In  cities,  the  local 
or  district  leader  is  often  an  able  man  in  his  way;  and  of 
late  years  as  politics  has  developed  into  a  science,  he  is  often 
found  to  be  sober,  shrewd  and  well  mannered.  His  duties 
are  varied.  He  assists  and  protects  his  constituents  in  local 
political  matters;  obtains  the  saloon  license;  also  permits  for 
the  small  trades  or  businesses,  the  boot-black,  the  lemonade 
seller,  etc.  He  protects  against  arrests,  gets  bail  for  culprits, 
sees  police  judges,  lends  small  sums,  distributes  coal  in  winter, 
gives  poultry  at  Christmas,  sends  medicine  for  the  sick,  helps 
bury  the  dead  by  procuring  credit  or  cheap  rates  at  the  under- 
taker's, orders  drinks  at  the  saloon,  and  is  looked  on  as  a 
ready  helper  in  time  of  trouble  of  all  kinds.  He  may  have 
placed  a  large  number  of  men  on  the  city  pay-roll  who  never 
do  much  work  and  whose  principal  duties  are  to  attend  con- 
ventions, get  out  the  vote  on  election  day,  promise  places 
and  favors,  and  threaten  and  intimidate  opposition  to  the 
regular  ticket.  In  some  cities  these  petty  leaders  are  num- 
bered by  the  thousand.  It  was  estimated  at  one  time  that 
they  totaled  12,000  to  15,000  in  New  York  alone.  As  time 
passes  the  outward  semblance  and  methods  of  the  politician 
may  change,  or  they  may  vary  with  his  situation  and  station 
in  the  political  hierarchy,  but  his  spirit  and  objects  and  evil 
influence  continue  unaltered.  The  politician  of  our  day  is 
thus  described  by  Dr.  Clark: 

"The  perfect  type  of  the  American  politician  is  a  mixture  of  the 
demagogue,  the  intriguer  and  the  jobber;  flattering  the  people, 
locking  arms  with  every  surrounding  influence  and  all  the  time 
looking  out  for  himself."  (The  Machine  Abolished,  p.  43.) 


MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  PROGENY  137 

Bryce  thus  sketches  the  ward  politician: 

"As  there  are  weeds  that  follow  human  dwellings,  so  this  species 
thrives  best  in  cities,  and  even  in  the  most  crowded  parts  of  cities. 
It  is  known  to  the  Americans  as  the  'ward  politician,'  because  the 
city  ward  is  the  chief  sphere  of  its  activity,  and  the  ward  meeting 
the  first  scene  of  its  exploits.  A  statesman  of  this  type  usually 
begins  as  a  saloon  or  barkeeper,  an  occupation  which  enables  him 
to  form  a  large  circle  of  acquaintances,  especially  among  the 
'loafer'  class  who  have  votes  but  no  reason  for  using  them  one 
way  more  than  another,  and  whose  interest  in  political  issues  is 
therefore  as  limited  as  their  stock  of  political  knowledge.  But  he 
may  have  started  as  a  lawyer  of  the  lowest  kind,  or  lodging-house 
keeper,  or  have  taken  to  politics  after  failure  in  store-keeping. 
The  education  of  this  class  is  only  that  of  the  elementary  schools; 
if  they  have  come  after  boyhood  from  Europe,  it  is  not  even  that. 
They  have  of  course  no  comprehension  of  political  questions  or 
zeal  for  political  principles ;  politics  mean  to  them  merely  a  scramble 
for  places  or  jobs.  They  are  usually  vulgar,  sometimes  brutal,  not 
so  often  criminal,  or  at  least  the  associates  of  criminals.  They  it 
is  who  move  about  the  populous  quarters  of  the  great  cities,  form 
groups  through  whom  they  can  reach  and  control  the  ignorant 
voter,  pack  meetings  with  their  creatures."  .  .  . 

"In  the  smaller  cities  and  in  the  country  generally,  the  minor 
politicians  are  mostly  native  Americans,  less  ignorant  and  more 
respectable  than  these  last-mentioned  street  vultures.  The  bar- 
keeping  element  is  represented  among  them,  but  the  bulk  are  petty 
lawyers,  officials,  Federal  as  well  as  State  and  county,  and  people 
who  for  want  of  a  better  occupation  have  turned  office-seekers, 
with  a  fair  sprinkling  of  store-keepers,  farmers,  and  newspaper 
men."  .  .  . 

"These  two  classes  do  the  local  work  and  dirty  work  of  politics. 
They  are  the  rank  and  file.  Above  them  stand  the  officers  in  the 
political  army,  the  party  managers,  including  the  members  of 
Congress  and  chief  men  in  the  State  legislatures,  and  the  editors 
of  influential  newspapers.  Some  of  these  have  pushed  their  way 
up  from  the  humbler  ranks.  Others  are  men  of  superior  ability 
and  education,  often  college  graduates,  lawyers  who  have  had 
practice,  less  frequently  merchants  or  manufacturers  who  have 


138      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

slipped  into  politics  from  business.  There  are  all  sorts  among 
them,  creatures  clean  and  unclean,  as  in  the  sheet  of  St.  Peter's 
vision,  but  that  one  may  say  of  politicians  in  all  countries.57 
(American  Commonwealth,  Vol.  II,  pp.  63,  64,  65.) 

The  political  leaders,  says  Eaton,  endeavor  to  bring  "every 
"form  of  human  depravity,  imbecility  and  ignorance  to  the 
"polls.  They  and  their  minions  search  the  garrets  and  the 
"cellars,  the  prisons  and  the  asylums,  the  grog  shops  and  the 
"poor  houses;  they  lead  and  hustle  to  the  ballot  boxes  the  vil- 
"est  specimens  of  humanity  which  can  be  made  to  cast  a  vote" 
(Government  of  Municipalities,  p.  122),  and  he  adds  that 
some  of  these  leaders  are  public  officials,  some  have  even  been 
on  the  bench  of  justice  as  police  magistrates.  Here  is  a  sketch 
of  a  New  York  district  leader,  veracious  though  imaginary, 
from  the  facile  pen  of  O.  Henry  (The  Social  Triangle). 

"Billy  McMahan  was  the  district  leader.  Upon  him  the  Tiger 
purred,  and  his  hand  held  manna  to  scatter.  Now,  as  Ikey 
entered  (the  bar  room)  McMahan  stood,  flushed  and  triumphant 
and  mighty,  the  center  of  a  huzzaing  concourse  of  his  lieutenants 
and  constituents.  It  seems  there  had  been  an  election;  a  signal 
victory  had  been  won;  the  city  had  been  swept  back  into  line 
by  a  resistless  besom  of  ballots.  How  magnificent  was  Billy 
McMahan,  with  his  great  smooth  laughing  face;  his  gray  eye 
shrewd  as  a  chicken  hawk's;  his  diamond  ring;  his  voice  like  a 
bugle  call;  his  prince's  air;  his  plump  and  active  roll  of  money; 
his  clarion  call  to  friend  and  comrade  —  oh,  what  a  king  of  men 
he  was!  How  he  obscured  his  lieutenants,  though  they  them- 
selves loomed  large  and  serious,  blue  of  chin  and  important  of 
mien,  with  hands  buried  deep  in  the  pockets  of  their  short  overcoats." 

Besides  the  immediate  lieutenants  of  the  boss  there  are  in 
the  cities  gangs  of  "heelers"  formed  by  the  political  organiza- 
tions who,  as  said  by  Ostrogorski,  constitute  a  latent  political 
force  under  the  management  of  henchmen.  They  are  de- 
scribed by  him  as  ignorant,  brutal,  averse  to  regular  work, 
mostly  recruited  from  the  criminal  or  semi-criminal  classes, 
from  among  frequenters  of  drinking  saloons  and  from  failures 
and  loafers  of  every  description.  When  the  elections  come 


MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  PROGENY  139 

around  they  furnish  compact  bands  of  "floaters"  or  "repeaters" 
as  they  are  often  called,  ready,  for  a  consideration,  to  vote  early 
and  as  often  as  permitted.  Professor  Woodburn  of  Indiana 
University  writing  in  1903,  says  that: 

"A  politician  has  come  to  mean  one  devoted  not  to  the  science 
and  art  of  government,  but  to  the  success  of  a  political  party;  a 
party  worker  who  devotes  himself  to  the  art  of  making  nominations 
and  carrying  elections;  one  who  manages  caucuses,  committees 
and  conventions,  by  which  the  party  business  and  the  party  ma- 
chinery are  carried  on.  It  is  because  the  people  have  consented 
to  turn  over  their  parties  and  their  party  government  to  this  self 
constituted  class  of  party  managers  that  they  have  come  under  the 
control  of  rjngs  and  bosses."  (Political  Parties  and  Party  Prob- 
lems, p.  360.) 

He  describes  a  political  ring  as  a  group  of  these  professional 
politicians  who  live  by  politics,  bound  together  for  mutual 
support  in  pursuit  of  offices,  public  patronage,  contracts  and 
other  pecuniary  opportunities,  and  generally  unscrupulous  in 
their  methods.  The  leader  of  the  ring  is  the  boss,  who  usually 
does  not  hold  office  but  controls  the  offices  from  outside,  by 
backstairs  influence. 

This  from  Professor  Hyslop: 

"But  the  single  purpose  that  animates  the  average  politician  is 
the  same  that  inspires  the  beggar  or  the  thief.  Either  he  has  failed 
for  want  of  ability  of  an  honest  kind  in  legitimate  methods  of  busi- 
ness and  in  competition  with  his  fellows,  and  seeks  a  public  salary 
with  freedom  to  indulge  his  natural  indolence,  or  he  uses  his 
ingenuity  and  abilities  to  secure  the  irresponsible  power  to  plunder 
the  public  with  impunity."  (Democracy,  p.  270.) 

The  purchase  of  votes  and  the  collection  of  funds  for  that 
purpose  has  always  been  an  important  part  of  the  politician's 
work.  The  expression  "bunches  of  five"  has  become  a  byword 
ever  since  its  use  some  twenty  years  ago  by  a  prominent  Re- 
publican politician  in  reference  to  delivery  of  votes  for  money. 
"Frying  out  the  fat"  is  another  striking  expression  which  be- 


140      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

came  current  about  the  same  time  in  the  same  way  and  was 
intended  to  be  descriptive  of  the  method  of  getting  large  sums 
from  corporations  for  use  in  election  purposes.  The  total 
amounts  thus  contributed  in  the  past  forty  years  to  carry 
presidential  elections  would  probably  run  into  the  hundreds 
of  millions.  In  1910  President  Vreeland  of  the  Metropolitan 
Street  Railway  of  New  York  testified  before  a  legislative  com- 
mittee that  his  company  contributed  campaign  funds  to  both 
parties.  One  year  it  divided  about  $40,000  between  them. 
This  is  not  mentioned  as  an  exceptional  instance  but  as  illus- 
trative of  a  well  known  practice. 

Let  us  now  glance  at  the  great  man  himself,  the  real  Boss, 
the  magnate,  the  prince  of  American  Democracy,  the  man 
who  of  all  men  most  thoroughly  believes  in  manhood  suffrage, 
understands  it  and  profits  by  it;  one  of  the  real  political 
rulers  of  the  American  people;  he  who  makes  and  unmakes 
governors,  senators  and  high  judges;  he  for  whom  sheriffs, 
aldermen,  assemblymen,  state  senators,  and  sometimes  even 
our  mayors  of  cities  are  glad  to  run  errands  and  to  wait  in 
anterooms.  Writing  in  1914  Goodnow  says  of  the  bosses: 
"They  control  the  making  of  laws  and  their  execution  after 
"they  are  made."  (Politics  and  Administration,  p.  1 69.)  What 
is  a  boss  like?  What  are  his  outward  manifestations? 

About  the  best  analysis  of  his  character  and  functions  was 
made  by  Professor  Reinsch  of  Wisconsin,  as  follows: 

"Sooner  or  later  there  is  evolved  the  boss,  the  fruit  and  flower 
of  commercial  politics  in  America.  He  represents  the  main  interest 
but  also  holds  the  balance  between  the  minor  tributary  groups. 
The  secrecy  necessary  for  his  work  gives  him  great  power.  He 
alone  holds  all  the  threads  that  bind  the  system  together.  In  his 
person  are  united  the  confidence  of  the  favored  interests  and  the 
hopes  of  his  political  lieutenants.  He  commands  the  source  of 
supplies.  He  has  mastered  the  study  of  political  psychology  and 
knows  by  intimate  experience  the  personal  character  of  the  promi- 
nent politicians  in  the  state.  Most  of  them  are  dependent  upon 
him  for  future  favors  or  are  bound  to  him  through  past  indiscre- 


MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  PROGENY  141 

tions.  The  character  of  the  system  demands  an  absolute  ruler. 
For  this  reason,  too,  the  power  of  the  boss  is  continuous;  it  is 
rarely  overthrown  from  within  and  only  a  great  public  upheaval 
can  affect  it.  Bosses  maintain  themselves  in  the  saddle  and  enjoy 
a  long  lease  of  power,  because  of  their  direct  and  confidential  rela- 
tions with  the  controlling  interests;  their  inborn  secretiveness  leads 
them  to  keep  their  own  counsel,  and  not  to  allow  any  other  person 
a  complete  insight  into  all  the  intricacies  of  the  system.  They 
grow  stronger  as  the  years  pass  and  no  indiscretion  or  even  crime 
is  able  to  shake  their  authority  while  they  keep  in  their  hands  the 
main  threads  connecting  influence  with  its  obedient  tools.  The 
abler  men  of  this  type  are  filled  with  a  keen  sense  of  the  irony 
of  their  position.  They  have  the  clear  insight  into  the  coarser 
actualities  of  politics  that  characterized  Machiavelli.  The  political 
exhorter  who  sways  the  multitudes  from  the  stump  does  not  be- 
come a  boss;  to  achieve  that  position  the  power  of  cool  analysis, 
of  impassive  control,  and  of  unflinching  execution,  are  more  essen- 
tial than  any  gifts  of  popular  leadership."  (American  Legislatures 
and  Legislative  Methods,  pp.  236,  237.) 

Another  sketch: 

"It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  members  of  Rings,  or  the  great 
Boss  himself  are  wicked  men.  They  are  the  offspring  of  a  sys- 
tem. Their  morality  is  that  of  their  surroundings.  They  see 
a  door  open  to  wealth  and  power,  and  they  walk  in.  The  obliga- 
tions of  patriotism  or  duty  to  the  public  are  not  disregarded  by 
them,  for  these  obligations  have  never  been  present  to  their  minds. 
A  State  boss  is  usually  a  native  American  and  a  person  of  some 
education,  who  avoids  the  grosser  forms  of  corruption,  though  he 
has  to  wink  at  them  when  practised  by  his  friends.  He  may  be  a 
man  of  personal  integrity.  A  city  boss  is  often  of  foreign  birth 
and  humble  origin;  he  has  grown  up  in  an  atmosphere  of  oaths  and 
cocktails;  ideas  of  honour  and  purity  are  as  strange  to  him  as 
ideas  about  the  nature  of  the  currency  and  the  incidence  of  tax- 
ation; politics  is  merely  a  means  for  getting  and  distributing 
places."  (Bryce,  American  Commonwealth,  Vol.  II,  p.  no.) 

Under  the  supervision  of  the  political  boss  blackmail  is 
levied  for  party  purposes  from  gambling  houses,  saloons  and 


142      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

houses  of  ill  repute.  He  is  not  primarily  concerned  with  polit- 
ical opinions.  He  controls  his  best  men  by  their  interests. 
It  is  his  business  to  carry  the  elections  and  thus  get  power 
and  places  for  self  and  followers.  He  is  able  to  dismiss 
almost  any  politician  from  office  and  to  close  his  political 
career.  He  and  not  the  people  is  the  real  master  of  the 
inferior  office-holders.  "At  all  hazards  he  must  prevent  the 
"incoming  of  an  honest  administration  that  will  apply  the 
"public  offices  for  public  uses."  For  this  purpose  the  bosses 
of  opposite  parties  unite  when  necessary.  Woodburn  men- 
tions an  instance  of  this  in  Philadelphia  in  1901,  and  adds 
referring  to  the  boss: 

"Those  who  support  him  have  their  reward — the  laborer  gets 
his  job,  the  placeman  office;  the  policeman  his  promotion  or  his 
"divvy";  the  contractor  a  chance  at  the  public  works;  the  banker 
the  use  of  the  public  money ;  the  gambler  and  the  criminal  immunity 
from  prosecution;  the  honest  merchant  certain  sidewalk  privileges; 
the  rich  corporations  lowered  assessments  and  immunity  from 
equitable  taxation.  All  buy  these  special  favors  by  support  of 
the  Boss's  power  and  policy,  and  all  enjoy  the  blessings  of  the 
Boss's  government,  high  taxation,  maladministration,  stolen  fran- 
chises, robbery  of  the  public  treasury,  and  criminal  disorder  in  the 
community."  (Political  Parties  and  Party  Platforms,  p.  364.) 

In  an  article  in  the  Outlook,  April  2,  1898,  Miss  Jane 
Addams  of  Chicago,  a  well-known  settlement  worker,  writing 
no  doubt  from  personal  observation,  describes  the  Boss  as  an 
institution  of  American  politics  in  similar  language  to  that  of 
Professor  Woodburn.  She  depicts  the  typical  city  political  boss, 
his  personality  and  good-natured  freebooting  methods  with 
piquancy  and  vigor;  he  is,  she  says,  a  successful  boodler  who 
is  popular  with  the  poor  because  in  their  ignorance  they  sup- 
pose that  he  only  robs  the  rich  while  to  the  poor  he  is  a  sym- 
pathetic friend;  or  as  they  say,  he  has  a  good  heart.  The 
reader  can  easily  trace  for  himself  the  direct  connection 
between  this  point  of  view  of  the  lower  classes  and  their 
support  of  Tweed,  the  robber  politician  whom  a  New  York 


MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  PROGENY  143 

City  district  triumphantly  elected  state  senator  shortly  after 
his  rascalities  were  exposed.  With  that  connection  in  mind 
the  relation  between  the  power  of  the  boss  and  universal 
suffrage  is  perfectly  apparent.  The  class  of  voters  brought 
in  by  unqualified  suffrage  prefer  friendly  bosses  and  free- 
handed boodlers  to  men  who  are  governed  by  motives  so  su- 
perior to  their  own  as  to  seem  to  them  visionary  or  fantastic; 
who  have  in  their  pockets  no  stolen  or  easy  got  cash  to 
squander  on  their  followers,  and  who  not  being  professional 
"handshakers"  seem  to  the  masses  lacking  in  sympathy  for 
common  men. 

But  there  is  a  power  greater  even  than  the  Boss;  and  that 
is  the  Machine,  a  creation  which  has  reached  its  highest  de- 
velopment in  our  own  time  and  of  which  the  greatest  politicians 
speak  with  awe.  Theodore  Roosevelt,  the  "Big  Bull  Moose," 
was  a  big  politician,  a  glorified  Boss;  but  he  went  down  at 
Chicago  in  1912  crushed  by  the  steam  roller  attachment  of 
the  Machine.  "For  the  Roller  came  and  with  great  eclat  it 
laid  that  turrible  animile  flat,"  was  the  doggerel  verdict  of  a 
newspaper  of  that  day. 

"The  tremendous  power  of  party  organization  has  been  described. 
It  enslaves  local  officials,  it  increases  the  tendency  to  regard  mem- 
bers of  Congress  as  mere  delegates,  it  keeps  men  of  independent 
character  out  of  local  and  national  politics,  it  puts  bad  men  into 
place,  it  perverts  the  wishes  of  the  people,  it  has  in  some  places  set 
up  a  tyranny  under  the  forms  of  democracy."  (Bryce,  American 
Commonwealth,  Vol.  II,  p.  612.) 

The  word  "machine"  indicates  its  character. 

"The  professional  politicians  (says  Ostrogorski)  operated,  under 
the  direction  of  the  managers,  and  the  wire  pullers  with  such  uni- 
formity and  with  such  indifference  or  insensibility  to  right  and  wrong, 
that  they  evoked  the  idea  of  a  piece  of  mechanism  working  automati- 
cally and  blindly;  of  a  machine;  the  effect  appeared  so  precisely 
identical,  that  the  term  "machine"  was  foisted  on  the  Organization 
as  a  nick-name  which  it  bears  down  to  the  present  day." 
(Democracy,  p.  60.) 


144      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

In  this  machine  the  voter  is  a  very  small  cog;  he  neither 
devised  the  machine,  nor  can  he  in  the  least  control  it,  nor 
is  it  constructed  to  serve  his  interests.  It  is  organized  in  the 
interests  of  discipline  and  on  the  principle  of  obedience.  In 
New  York,  for  instance,  an  important  part  of  the  Tammany 
Machine  is  the  Committee  on  Organization,  composed  of  the 
leaders  of  certain  wards  and  districts,  each  one  of  whom 
either  holds  a  public  office  or  has  a  valuable  public  contract 
or  is  in  some  way  dependent  on  the  Boss  for  his  yearly  income. 
The  committee  man  looks  after  his  district  and  is  responsible 
to  the  Boss  for  its  vote.  Not  by  the  people  but  by  the  polit- 
ical machines  are  offices  filled,  laws  enacted,  government  car- 
ried on.  The  machine  discipline  though  sometimes  severe 
operates  on  the  whole  for  the  benefit  of  the  politician  by 
protecting  the  faithful.  The  efficient  members  of  the  class 
of  professional  politicians  are  never  more  than  temporarily 
shelved.  If  defeated  at  one  election  they  are  chosen  at  an- 
other. If  they  fail  to  get  one  office,  room  is  made  for  them 
somewhere  else,  and  so  they  are  made  to  form  a  class  of 
permanent  office-holders,  and  the  power  and  efficiency  of  the 
political  oligarchy  are  steadily  maintained. 

"The  City  machine  makes  friends  with  saloon  keepers,  with 
gamblers  and  other  criminal  classes,  or  with  large  financial  institu- 
tions, seeking  to  obtain  control  of  the  vast  sums  expended  for 
public  improvements.  This  source  of  revenue  has  of  late  proved 
vastly  more  fruitful  than  the  earlier  and  more  primitive  methods. 
By  means  of  these  various  alliances  a  large  body  of  pledged  sup- 
porters is  secured.  In  addition  to  ordinary  party  officers  the  machine 
employs  a  body  of  workers  formerly  known  as  ward  heelers  now 
more  generally  called  workers,  gangs,  gunmen,  or  district  leaders, 
some  of  whom  are  accustomed  to  commit  various  sorts  of  crime, 
such  as  securing  fraudulent  naturalization  papers  for  foreigners, 
entering  fictitious  names  on  the  register  of  voters,  organizing  re- 
peaters and  voting  them  on  election  day."  (Cyclopedia  American 
Political  Government,  Machine,  Political,  1914.) 

We  quote  once  more  from  Bryce,  writing  in  1894,  as  to 
the  operation  of  machine  rule  in  New  York  City: 


MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  PROGENY  145 

"Such  an  organization  as  this,  with  its  tentacles  touching  every 
point  in  a  vast  and  amorphous  city,  is  evidently  a  most  potent 
force,  especially  as  this  force  is  concentrated  in  one  hand  —  that 
of  the  Boss  of  the  Hall.  He  is  practically  autocratic;  and  under 
him  these  thousands  of  officers,  controlling  from  120,000  to  150,000 
votes,  move  with  the  precision  of  a  machine.  However,  it  is  not 
only  in  this  mechanism,  which  may  be  called  a  legitimate  method 
of  reaching  the  voters,  that  the  strength  of  Tammany  lies.  Its 
control  of  the  city  government  gives  it  endless  opportunities  of 
helping  its  friends,  of  worrying  its  opponents,  and  of  enslaving 
the  liquor-dealers.  Their  licenses  are  at  its  mercy,  for  the  police 
can  proceed  against  or  wink  at  breaches  of  the  law,  according  to 
the  amount  of  loyalty  the  saloon-keeper  shows  to  the  Hall.  From 
the  contributions  of  the  liquor  interest  a  considerable  revenue  is 
raised;  more  is  obtained  by  assessing  office-holders,  down  to 
the  very  small  ones;  and  perhaps  most  of  all  by  blackmail- 
ing wealthy  men  and  corporations,  who  find  that  the  city  authorities 
have  so  many  opportunities  of  interfering  vexatiously  with  their 
business  that  they  prefer  to  buy  them  off  and  live  in  peace.  The 
worst  form  of  this  extortion  is  the  actual  complicity  with  criminals 
which  consists  in  sharing  the  profits  of  crime.  A  fruitful  source 
of  revenue,  roughly  estimated  at  $1,000,000  a  year,  is  derived, 
when  the  party  is  supreme  at  Albany,  from  legislative  blackmailing 
in  the  legislature,  or,  rather,  from  undertaking  to  protect  the 
great  corporations  from  the  numerous  'strikers/  who  threaten  them 
there  with  bills.  A  case  has  been  mentioned  in  which  as  much 
as  $60,000  was  demanded  from  a  great  company;  and  the  president 
of  another  is  reported  to  have  said  (1893):  'Formerly  we  had  to 
keep  a  man  at  Albany  to  buy  off  the  "strikers"  one  by  one.  This 
year  we  simply  paid  over  a  lump  sum  to  the  Ring,  and  they 
looked  after  our  interests.'  But  of  all  their  engines  of  power  none 
is  so  elastic  as  their  command  of  the  administration  of  criminal 
justice.  The  mayor  appoints  the  police  justices,  usually  selecting 
them  from  certain  Tammany  workers,  sometimes  from  the  criminal 
class,  not  often  from  the  legal  profession.  These  justices  are  often 
Tammany  leaders  in  their  respective  districts."  .  .  . 

"With  such  sources  of  power  it  is  not  surprising  that  Tammany 
Hall  commands  the  majority  of  the  lower  and  the  foreign  masses 
of  New  York,  though  it  has  never  been  shown  to  hold  an  absolute 


146      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

majority  of  all  the  voters  of  the  city.  Its  local  strength  is  exactly 
proportioned  to  the  character  of  the  local  population;  and  though 
there  are  plenty  of  native  Americans  among  the  rank  and  file  as  well 
as  among  the  leaders,  still  it  is  from  the  poorer  districts,  inhabited 
by  Jews,  Irish,  Germans,  Italians,  Bohemians,  that  its  heaviest  vote 
comes."  (American  Commonwealth,  Vol.  II,  pp.  398-400.) 

A  booklet  published  in  1887  gives  some  account  of  the 
organization  of  the  political  machines  of  New  York  City, 
showing  that  they  all  depend  upon  the  use  of  a  minority 
controllable  vote  presumably  of  men  without  substantial  means 
and  whose  political  support  is  therefore  purchasable  in  one 
way  or  another.  The  writer  says: 

"The  machine  is  governed  by  a  singleness  of  purpose  which 
produces  a  compactness  against  which  good  citizens  can  only 
break  themselves  to  pieces  when  fighting  it  from  within,  while 
if  they  organize  an  outside  opposition  in  which  everything  is  done 
by  honest  discussion,  compactness  is  almost  impossible  of  achieve- 
ment. .  .  .  The  politicians  would  not  be  difficult  to  beat  if  the 
people  would  organize  for  their  own  protection  and  from  principle; 
but  it  is  the  matter  of  organization  which  is  difficult,  and  no  one 
understands  this  better  than  the  bosses."  (Ivins,  Machine  Politics.) 

The  machine  is  not  peculiar  to  the  cities: 

"It  is  also  found  at  the  court  house  of  the  rural  county,  at  the 
cross  roads  postoffice,  the  village  store,  the  town  hall.  The  differ- 
ence is  one  of  degree;  the  mechanism  is  everywhere  the  same.  .  .  . 
The  corrupt  political  machine  of  today  controlled  by  a  boss  is 
contrary  to  the  American  system  of  government,  and  were  it  not 
a  terrible  reality  this  creation  would  be  deemed  an  impossibility. 
It  is  in  its  present  state  of  perfection,  rule  of  the  people  by  the 
individual  for  the  boss,  his  relatives  and  friends.  It  is  the  most 
complete  political  despotism  ever  known."  (Coler  on  Municipal 
Government,  1900,  pp.  188-190.) 

Nor  is  the  use  of  the  machine  confined  to  the  Democratic 
party;  even  in  New  York  it  is  part  of  the  Republican  party 
system  also.  In  an  address  delivered  in  New  York  May  2d, 
1880,  George  William  Curtis  described  the  Republican  polit- 


MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  PROGENY  147 

ical  machine  and  its  operations,  how  it  practically  excluded 
nearly  nine-tenths  of  the  Republican  voters  from  the  pri- 
maries. He  stated  that  the  bosses  were  "huge  contractors 
"of  votes,  traders  and  hucksters  in  place  and  pelf,"  who  "made 
"personal  servility  the  condition  of  political  success"  and  were 
ready  to  "betray  the  party  by  bargaining  with  the  enemy"; 
"that  good  men  stayed  at  home  feeling  that  "politics  are  tire- 
"some  and  dirty  and  politicians  vulgar  bullies  and  bravadoes"; 
that  "public  officers  multiply  uselessly  that  there  may  be  more 
"rewards  for  political  and  personal  service.  Primaries,  cau- 
"cuses,  conventions,  are  controlled  by  the  promise  and  expec- 
"tation  of  a  chance  of  plunder  which  the  machine  distributes." 
Here  is  an  account  of  how  the  votes  of  working  men  were 
used  in  Philadelphia  by  the  Republican  boss  McManes,  to 
build  up  a  corrupt  political  organization: 

"This  gentleman,  Mr.  James  McManes,  having  gained  influence 
among  the  humbler  voters,  was  appointed  one  of  the  Gas  Trustees, 
and  soon  managed  to  bring  the  whole  of  that  department  under  his 
control.  It  employed  (I  was  told)  about  two  thousand  persons, 
received  large  sums,  and  gave  out  large  contracts.  Appointing  his 
friends  and  dependents  to  the  chief  places  under  the  Trust,  and 
requiring  them  to  fill  the  ranks  of  its  ordinary  workmen  with  per- 
sons on  whom  they  could  rely,  the  Boss  acquired  the  control  of 
a  considerable  number  of  votes  and  of  a  large  annual  revenue.  He 
and  his  confederates  then  purchased  a  controlling  interest  in  the 
principal  horse-car  (street  tramway)  company  of  the  city,  whereby 
they  became  masters  of  a  large  number  of  additional  voters.  All 
these  voters  were  of  course  expected  to  act  as  'workers,'  i.e.,  they 
occupied  themselves  with  the  party  organization  of  the  city,  they 
knew  the  meanest  streets  and  those  who  dwelt  therein,  they  attended 
and  swayed  the  primaries,  and  when  an  election  came  round,  they 
canvassed  and  brought  up  the  voters.  Their  power,  therefore,  went 
far  beyond  their  mere  voting  strength,  for  a  hundred  energetic 
'workers'  mean  at  least  a  thousand  votes.  With  so  much  strength 
behind  them,  the  Gas  Ring,  and  Mr.  McManes  at  its  head,  be- 
came not  merely  indispensable  to  the  Republican  party  in  the 
city,  but  in  fact  its  chiefs,  able  therefore  to  dispose  of  the  votes 


148      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

of  all  those  who  were  employed  permanently  or  temporarily  in 
the  other  departments  of  the  city  government  —  a  number  which 
one  hears  estimated  as  high  as  twenty  thousand.  Nearly  all  the 
municipal  offices  were  held  by  their  nominees.  They  commanded 
a  majority  in  the  Select  council  and  Common  council.  They  man- 
aged the  nomination  of  members  of  the  State  legislature.  Even 
the  Federal  officials  in  the  custom-house  and  post-office  were  forced 
into  a  dependent  alliance  with  them,  because  their  support  was  so 
valuable  to  the  leaders  in  Federal  politics  that  it  had  to  be  pur- 
chased by  giving  them  their  way  in  city  affairs."  (Bryce,  American 
Commonwealth,  Vol.  II,  p.  405.) 

"Machine  politics  are  completely  subversive  both  of  democracy 
and  of  the  principle  of  responsibility  for  which  democracy  is 
supposed  to  stand.  It  constitutes  nothing  except  a  system  of 
self-appointed  rulers,  and  the  principle  of  elective  representation 
of  which  we  boast  becomes  a  farce.  Public  servants  and  officers  can 
in  some  way,  usually,  be  made  responsible  for  the  administration  of 
government,  but  political  bosses  never,  or  at  least  not  until  they 
have  retired  with  plunder  enough  to  live  without  politics.  The 
despotism  of  Russia  can  lay  some  claim  to  legitimacy.  The  Czar 
obtains  his  throne  and  power  by  the  forms  of  law  and  has  a  healthy 
fear  of  something,  but  not  so  with  our  bosses.  They  nominate  our 
candidates  for  office  and  mortgage  their  support,  so  that  we  are 
ruled  by  men  who  are  not  elected  to  govern  us  at  all,  our  nominal 
officers  being  the  mere  puppets  of  the  machine.  Public  opinion  is 
defied  until  its  patience  is  exhausted,  when  it  is  gratified  in  some 
caprice  and  it  lapses  back  again  into  indifference  and  the  old 
game  goes  on.  Property  of  all  kinds  is  blackmailed  directly  or 
indirectly,  and  business  terrorized.  Even  vice  and  crime  come  in 
for  tribute  as  is  well  known.  This  is  anarchy,  not  government,  and 
yet  we  indulge  the  pleasing  illusion  that  democracy  is  a  paradise." 
(Hyslop,  Democracy,  pp.  32-33.) 

And  further: 

"It  is  the  insolent  disregard  of  public  welfare,  the  deliberate 
exclusion  of  intelligent  and  honest  men  from  office,  the  refusal  to 
reason  about  public  policy,  the  shameless  corruption  of  its  leaders, 
its  organized  methods  of  deception,  bribery,  and  blackmail  with 


MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  PROGENY  149 

public  jobbery  and  frauds  upon  the  tax-payers,  that  make,  machine 
politics  so  despicable  in  the  estimation  of  the  public  conscience." 
(Idem,  p.  268.) 

All  nominations  for  public  office  to  be  voted  on  by  the  people 
are  made  by  a  machine  whatever  may  be  the  party  in  whose 
name  they  are  made.  This  is  true  not  only  of  the  high 
offices,  such  as  president,  governor,  senator,  etc.,  but  also  of 
such  lower  offices  as  mayor,  judges  of  the  state  courts,  state 
senators  and  assemblymen.  Sometimes  these  nominations  are 
made  at  primaries  which  are  carried  by  the  boss  through  the 
local  organizations;  or  at  political  conventions  also  controlled 
by  the  machine.  The  details  of  the  secret  manipulations 
under  the  recent  primary  laws  have  not  yet  been  and  may 
never  be  published  and  exposed ;  but  those  of  the  old  political 
conventions  were  laid  bare  in  a  book  published  in  1899  by 
Senator  Breen,  an  experienced  politician  of  New  York.  He 
there  describes  the  power  of  the  bosses  and  the  subserviency 
of  the  masses. 

"There  is  scarcely  a  place  on  earth  (says  Breen)  where  one  can 
see  so  fully  the  extremes  of  sycophancy  to  which  human  nature 
will  descend  as  one  does  in  a  political  convention  in  the  City  of 
New  York.  ...  I  blush  to  record  the  fact  that  the  convention 
which  I  attended  (and  the  same  may  be  said  of  every  political 
convention  in  this  city  even  at  the  present  day)  was  composed 
of  as  spineless  a  lot  of  creatures  as  ever  prostrated  themselves  be- 
fore a  throne,  or  crouched  in  the  presence  of  autocratic  power. 
Subserviency  was  shown  not  only  to  the  local  leader  or  deputy 
boss  himself,  but  to  the  understrappers,  who  were  supposed  to  have 
his  ear.  Not  able  to  get  into  the  immediate  presence  of  the  leader, 
persons  well  dressed  and  apparently  prosperous,  as  well  as  those 
who  were  ill  conditioned,  fawned  upon  forbidding  looking  beings 
who  were  supposed  to  be  close  to  the  leader,  and  whose  intelligence 
was  limited  to  understanding  orders  and  obeying  them.  .  .  . 

"Several  positions  connected  with  the  court  were  at  the  disposal  of 
the  judge  to  be  elected;  the  Democratic  nomination  was  equivalent 
to  the  certificate  of  election.  There  were  177  delegates  in  all,  and 
although  many  of  them  had  the  appearance  of  independent  men,  yet 


I5O      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

every  one  of  them  was  there  as  an  automaton  to  be  set  in  motion 
and  shifted  hither  and  thither  at  the  whim  of  the  local  boss.  Free 
born  citizens,  though  they  were,  with  the  sacred  right  of  the  ballot, 
they  were  there  merely  to  register  his  will  and  obey  his  orders  with- 
out question.  Not  only  this,  but  they  seemed  to  revel  in  their 
subserviency,  and  to  feel  joyous  and  even  proud  of  the  distinction 
of  being  political  slaves.  Nor  was  this  degradation  confined  to 
the  ignorant.  Men  of  education,  men  who  were  members  of  the 
learned  professions,  were  in  that  body,  and  vied  with  the  worst 
in  snivelling  sycophancy.  They  knew,  as  every  one  knew,  that 
the  person  who  was  to  be  nominated  for  a  seat  on  the  bench  was 
wholly  incompetent,  in  point  of  education  and  training,  to  fill  the 
office,  not  to  speak  of  other  disqualifications.  Yet  they  were  there 
to  obey  pliantly  the  mandates  of  a  deputy  boss  and  stifle  their 
conviction  and  their  conscience."  ( Thirty .  Yews  of  New  York 
Politics,  pp.  205,  206,  207.) 

Here  you  have  a  veracious  picture  made  by  an  expert  of  the 
actual  operation  of  manhood  suffrage,  which  according  to  the 
twaddlers  is  so  effective  in  stimulating  the  manly  character 
of  the  citizens  of  a  free  republic. 

Bryce  visited  one  of  these  conventions,  and  this  is  what 
he  saw: 

"During  the  morning,  a  tremendous  coming  and  going  and 
chattering  and  clattering  of  crowds  of  men  who  looked  at  once 
sordid  and  flashy,  faces  shrewd  but  mean  and  sometimes  brutal, 
vulgar  figures  in  good  coats  forming  into  small  groups  and  talking 
eagerly,  and  then  dissolving  to  form  fresh  groups;  a  universal 
camaraderie,  with  no  touch  of  friendship  about  it;  something 
between  a  betting-ring  and  the  flags  outside  the  Liverpool  Exchange. 
It  reminded  one  of  the  swarming  of  bees  in  tree  boughs,  a  cease- 
less humming  and  buzzing  which  betokens  immense  excitement 
over  proceedings  which  the  bystander  does  not  comprehend.  After 
some  hours  all  this  settled  down;  the  meeting  was  duly  organized; 
speeches  were  made,  all  dull  and  thinly  declamatory,  except  one  by 
an  eloquent  Irishman;  the  candidates  for  State  offices  were  pro- 
posed and  carried  by  acclamation;  and  the  business  ended.  Every- 
thing had  evidently  been  pre-arranged;  and  the  discontented,  if 


MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  PROGENY 

any  there  were,  had  been  .talked  over  during  the  swarming  hours." 
(American  Commonwealth,  Vol.  II,  p.  105.) 

The  members  of  these  nominating  conventions,  or  "dele- 
gates," as  they  are  called,  are  supposed  to  be  chosen  by  the 
voters  at  elections  held  for  that  purpose,  called  "primaries." 
The  vote  at  these  primaries  is  never  more  than  a  fraction  of 
those  belonging  to  the  party.  It  ranges  from  two  per  cent 
to  ten  per  cent  unless  when  there  is  a  contest  between  two 
party  men,  when  it  may  go  as  high  as  forty  per  cent  of  those 
entitled  to  vote.  Outside  of  the  party  workers,  scarcely  any- 
one attends  these  primaries.  Bryce  sketches  the  means  taken 
by  the  boss  to  control  the  primary  election,  which  include 
trickery,  fraud  and  violence.  (American  Commonwealth,  Vol. 
II,  pp.  102,  103.)  He  describes  the  workings  of  the  primary 
system  and  the  convention  as  in  operation  in  Philadelphia 
under  the  management  of  the  Gas  Ring  in  1881: 

"The  delegates  chosen  were  usually  office-holders,  with  a  sprink- 
ling of  public  works  contractors,  liquor-dealers,  always  a  potent 
factor  in  ward  politics,  and  office  expectants.  For  instance,  the 
Convention  of  i3th  January,  1881,  for  nominating  a  candidate  for 
mayor,  consisted  of  199  delegates,  86  of  whom  were  connected  with 
some  branch  of  the  city  government,  9  were  members  of  the  city 
councils,  5  were  police  magistrates,  4  constables,  and  23  policemen, 
while  of  the  rest  some  were  employed  in  some  other  city  department, 
and  some  others  were  the  known  associates  and  dependants  of  the 
Ring.  These  delegates,  assembled  in  convention  of  the  party,  duly 
went  through  the  farce  of  selecting  and  voting  for  persons  already 
determined  on  by  the  Ring  as  candidates  for  the  chief  offices.  The 
persons  so  selected  thereby  became  the  authorized  candidates  of 
the  party,  for  whom  every  good  party  man  was  expected  to  give  his 
vote.  Disgusted  he  might  be  to  find  a  person  unknown,  or  known 
only  for  evil,  perhaps  a  fraudulent  bankrupt,  or  a  broken-down 
barkeeper,  proposed  for  his  acceptance.  But  as  his  only  alter- 
native was  to  vote  for  the  Democratic  nominee,  who  was  probably 
no  better,  he  submitted,  and  thus  the  party  was  forced  to  ratify 
the  choice  of  the  Boss."  (American  Commonwealth,  Vol.  II,  p.  408.) 


152      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

The  method  adopted  by  the  local  boss  in  Breen's  time,  to 
assure  himself  that  every  man  in  the  convention  would  do 
his  bidding,  is  worthy  of  admiration  for  its  bold  and  un- 
scrupulous impudence.  He  does  this,  says  Breen,  in  advance 
of  the  primary  election  by  making  out  a  list  of  the  delegates 
whom  he  desires  chosen  and  obtaining  from  the  inspectors  a 
certificate  that  they  have  been  duly  elected.  What  occurs 
thereafter  at  the  primary  election  is  of  little  consequence  as 
the  credentials  are  already  in  the  possession  of  the  leader,  who 
when  the  convention  meets  draws  them  from  his  pocket  and 
as  there  is  no  going  behind  the  returns  the  delegates  take 
their  seats.  Times  and  laws  have  changed  since  Breen's  time 
and  this  plan  may  have  been  superseded  by  another,  at  present 
not  generally  known,  but  the  Boss  and  Machine  are  still  with 
us  as  powerful  as  ever;  the  class  of  officials  they  put  over  us 
is  the  same  as  before,  there  is  the  same  material  to  work 
with  and  it  is  presumable  that  the  present  system  is  equally 
corrupt  and  tyrannical  with  the  old  one. 

A  large  part  of  the  fuel  to  keep  the  machine  going  is  pro- 
vided for  by  voluntary  contributions  from  business  men  and 
corporations  desirous  of  political  favors,  such  as  street  privi- 
leges, franchises,  contracts,  or  is  levied  as  blackmail  upon 
them  or  upon  saloon  keepers,  gamblers,  keepers  of  brothels 
and  others  whose  habits  or  occupations  leave  them  open  to 
police  persecution;  also  by  assessments  on  office  holders, 
candidates  for  office  and  levies  on  corporations  sometimes 
called  "strikes." 

"The  levying  of  blackmail  on  companies,  either  as  a  contribution 
to  campaign  expenses  or  as  fees  to  pay  for  protection,  is  now  one 
of  the  principal  sources  of  a  Boss's  revenue,  and,  in  states  like  New 
York,  goes  a  good  way  towards  enabling  him  to  defy  hostile  senti- 
ment. It  furnishes  him  with  funds  for  subsidizing  the  legislature 
and  the  press."  (Atlantic  Monthly,  July,  1896.) 

Bryce  states  that  the  collection  of  revenues  of  a  political 
Ring  flow  from  five  sources,  viz.,  public  subscriptions,  con- 


MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  PROGENY  153 

tributions  from  contractors  and  others  expecting  favors,  sur- 
reptitious appropriations  from  the  city  or  state  treasury,  assess- 
ments upon  the  office  holders,  and  sale  of  offices  and  nomina- 
tions to  office.  Breen  says  truly  in  the  book  already  quoted 
that  the  majority  of  voters  are  utterly  unaware  of  what  is  really 
going  on  in  the  party.  There  are,  he  says,  "scarcely  5,000 
"persons  in  the  City  of  New  York  who  are  aware  of  the  secret 
"and  surreptitious  methods  governing  the  inside  of  politics  or 
"of  the  subterranean  channels  thereto  by  which  gross  wrongs 
"are  perpetrated.  The  secret  combinations,  conspiracies,  deals 
"and  bribery  are  confined  to  the  expert  politician."  How  few, 
for  instance,  know  the  facts  in  relation  to  the  practice  of  the 
barter  of  high  offices.  One  of  the  inevitable  results  of  the 
development  of  the  present  system  is  the  sale  of  nominations 
to  public  office  negotiated  by  the  boss  for  the  benefit  of  the 
machine.  The  existence  of  this  traffic  though  secretly  con- 
ducted is  well  known  in  political  circles.  Sometimes  the 
payment  is  direct;  sometimes  it  is  disguised  in  the  shape  of 
contributions  to  campaign  funds  made  by  the  candidate  or 
someone  in  his  behalf. 

"In  the  large  cities,  with  New  York  at  their  head,  practice  es- 
tablished a  sort  of  tariff  for  each  set  of  offices  according  to  the 
length  of  the  term  and  the  importance  of  the  place.  Thus  a 
judgeship,  that  is  to  say,  the  nomination  to  it  amounted  to  $15,000; 
a  seat  in  Congress  was  rated  at  $4,000;  for  membership  of  a  state 
legislature  $1,500  was  demanded;  a  like  amount  for  the  position 
of  alderman  in  a  city  council,  etc."  (Ostrogorski,  Idem,  p.  70.) 

"Candidates  for  the  judiciary  in  New  York  City  have  paid 
Tammany  Hall  $5,000  to  $10,000  for  their  offices."  (Commons 
on  Proportional  Representation,  p.  303.) 

Dr.  Clark  writing  in  1900  says: 

"By  credible  accounts  as  much  as  $100,000  has  been  paid  to 
get  nominated  by  the  Convention  of  the  dominant  party  for  Clerk, 
Register  or  Sheriff  of  the  County  of  New  York;  half  that  sum  for 
Treasurer  of  Pennsylvania,  and,  in  proportion  to  their  opportunities 


154      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES 

for  others  the  like  offices  all  over  the  country.  A  seat  on  the 
Supreme  Judicial  bench  costs  from  $5,000  to  $15,000.  A  nomina- 
tion to  Congress  from  the  lean  pastures  of  Vermont  or  New 
Hampshire  can  sometimes  be  had  for  a  thousand  dollars,  but  in 
the  golden  fields  of  California  and  Nevada  it  has  cost  fifty  thou- 
sand." (The  Machine  Abolished,  p.  40.) 

The  figures  contained  in  Bryce's  American  Commonwealth, 
Vol.  II,  p.  119,  as  to  ruling  rates  for  political  nominations 
under  this  much  prized  system  of  political  brigandage  are 
these:  Alderman,  $1,500;  Legislature,  $500  to  $1,500;  Judge- 
ship,  $5,000  to  $15,000;  Congress,  $4,000.  The  New  York 
County  Clerk  at  one  time  collected  about  $80,000  a  year  in 
fees,  of  which  the  political  machine  required  him  to  hand  over 
two- thirds.  Writing  in  1899  Dorman  B.  Eaton  states  the 
regular  price  of  a  high  judicial  nomination  is  $10,000  to 
$15,000.  (Government  of  Municipalities,  p.  107.)  Another 
more  recent  writer  gives  the  figures  for  political  assessments  for 
the  large  city  as  follows:  For  County  Clerk  and  Register, 
$15,000;  Alderman,  $13,000;  Sheriff,  $25,000;  Comptroller, 
$10,000;  Mayor,  $20,000;  Police  Justice,  $6,500. 

Not  only  the  offices  but  the  party  itself  is  sometimes  for 
sale  in  this  or  that  ward  or  city.  The  bargains  between  the 
Republican  and  Democratic  machines  in  New  York  City  and 
elsewhere  have  been  so  frequently  denounced  and  exposed  by 
the  politicians  themselves  as  to  need  no  proof.  It  is  a  matter 
of  common  knowledge  that  the  bosses  are  able  at  times  in 
shrewd  transactions  with  opposing  bosses  to  barter  certain 
public  offices,  batches  of  offices  and  measures  for  other  similar 
merchandise,  and  to  carry  out  the  bargain;  thus  causing  the 
votes  cast  at  an  election  to  have  directly  the  opposite  effect 
from  that  supposed  to  be  desired  by  the  voters,  though  perhaps 
many  of  the  floaters  or  regulars  among  them  would  be  per- 
fectly satisfied  with  the  "deal."  It  must  be  borne  in  mind 
that  the  ultimate  object  of  all  these  "deals"  and  this  political 
traffic  is  money;  the  party  managers  are  not  looking  for 
public  honors  but  for  cash;  they  are  actually  engaged  in  build- 


MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  PROGENY  155 

ing  up  fortunes  for  themselves  and  their  backers,  who  are 
public  contractors  and  the  like.  "Hence  it  is  the  oppor- 
tunity and  desire  for  public  pelf,  directly  or  indirectly,  and 
"for  gratifying  personal  ambition  without  reference  to  public 
"service,  that  are  the  most  potent  influences  in  the  formation 
"and  cohesiveness  of  the  'machine.' '  (Democracy,  p.  269.) 

An  instance  of  the  friendly  relations  between  rival  machines 
is  mentioned  by  Bryce  in  writing  of.  the  effort  to  get  the 
Democratic  machine  in  Philadelphia  in  1870  to  help  oust  the 
Republican  Gas  Ring: 

"But  the  Democratic  wire-pullers,  being  mostly  men  of  the 
same  stamp  as  the  Gas  Ring,  did  not  seek  a  temporary  gain  at 
the  expense  of  a  permanent  disparagement  of  their  own  class. 
Political  principles  are  the  last  thing  which  the  professional  city 
politician  cares  for.  It  was  better  worth  the  while  of  the  Demo- 
cratic chiefs  to  wait  for  their  turn,  and  in  the  meantime  to  get 
something  out  of  occasional  bargains  with  their  (nominal)  Re- 
publican opponents,  than  to  strengthen  the  cause  of  good  government 
at  the  expense  of  the  professional  class."  (American  Common- 
wealth, Vol.  II,  p.  411.) 

And  Eaton  mentions  an  instance  in  New  York  City  of  the 
leaders  of  one  political  party  being  in  the  pay  of  the  other. 
(Government  of  Municipalities,  p.  116  —  Note.) 

Here,  to  make  the  sketch  complete  must  be  said  a  brief 
word  about  the  lobby,  by  which  expressive  term  is  designated 
the  class  of  paid  agents  of  public  service  corporations  and 
others,  who  frequent  the  lobbies  of  the  state  legislatures  and 
of  Congress  in  order  to  promote  legislation  favorable  to  their 
principals  and  to  watch  and  fend  off  "strikes,"  "hold-ups"  and 
other  legislative  attacks  upon  them.  In  a  country  where 
ridiculously  small  salaries  are  paid  to  members  of  legislative 
bodies  the  lobby  does  much  to  make  a  legislator's  career  profit- 
able. Details  of  those  lobby  transactions  have  been  often 
published  as  newspaper  sensations,  and  some  of  them  will  be 
referred  to  in  this  book  later  on.  A  short  quotation  from  Prof. 
Commons  will  suffice  here  to  give  an  idea  of  their  character: 


156      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

"It  is  not  to  be  inferred  that  the  lobby  alone  is  responsible  for 
corrupt  legislatures  and  councils.  It  is  equally  true  that  corrupt 
legislatures  are  responsible  for  the  lobby.  Law-makers  introduce 
bills  attacking  corporations  for  the  express  purpose  of  forcing  a 
bribe.  This  is  called  a  'strike/  and  has  become  a  recognized 
feature  of  American  legislation,  to  meet  which  the  corporations 
are  compelled  to  organize  their  lobby."  (Commons,  Proportional 
Representation,  p.  47.) 

A  word  from  Bryce,  on  the  lobby: 

"All  legislative  bodies  which  control  important  pecuniary  inter- 
ests are  as  sure  to  have  a  lobby  as  an  army  to  have  its  camp 
followers.  Where  the  body  is,  there  will  the  vultures  be  gathered 
together.  Great  and  wealthy  States,  like  New  York,  and  Penn- 
sylvania, support  the  largest  and  most  active  lobbies.  .  .  .  Thus 
there  are  at  Washington,  says  Mr.  Spofford,  'pension  lobbyists, 
tariff  lobbyists,  steamship  subsidy  lobbyists,  railway  lobbyists,  In- 
dian ring  lobbyists,  patent  lobbyists,  river  and  harbour  lobbyists, 
mining  lobbyists,  bank  lobbyists,  mail-contract  lobbyists,  war  dam- 
ages lobbyists,  back-pay  and  bounty  lobbyists,  Isthmus  canal  lobby- 
ists, public  building  lobbyists,  State  claims  lobbyists,  cotton-tax 
lobbyists,  and  French  spoliations  lobbyists.  Of  the  office-seeking 
lobbyists  at  Washington  it  may  be  said  that  their  name  is  legion. 
There  are  even  artist  lobbyists,  bent  upon  wheedling  Congress  into 
buying  bad  paintings  and  worse  sculptures ;  and  too  frequently  with 


He  also  says  that  women  are  said  to  be  among  the  most 
active  and  successful  lobbyists  at  Washington,  and  that  they 
have  been  widely  employed  and  efficient  in  soliciting  members 
of  the  Legislature  with  a  view  to  the  passing  of  private  bills 
and  the  obtaining  of  places.  (American  Commonwealth, 
Vol.  I,  p.  680;  Vol.  II,  p.  732.) 

So  here  let  us  end  the  chapter  on  the  politicians,  with  the 
picture  of  a  purchasable  legislature  created  by  a  political 
machine  and  representing  a  purchasable  manhood  suffrage 
constituency,  and  of  the  traffic  conducted  by  bosses  and  rings 


MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  PROGENY  157 

on  one  side  and  a  lobby  on  the  other.  Granted  American 
activity,  and  enterprise  in  public  improvements  to  cause  the 
stream  of  dollars  to  flow  steadily,  and  what  more  is  required 
to  produce  what  Mr.  Carnegie  happily  dubs  "Triumphant 
Democracy"? 


CHAPTER   XI 

THE  EFFECT  OF  MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  IS  TO  FASTEN  ON  THE 
COUNTRY  AND  MAKE  PERMANENT  THE  RULE  OF  THE 
POLITICIANS 

THE  political  oligarchies  rule,  have  ruled  and  will  continue 
to  rule  this  country  through  the  medium  of  the  controllable 
vote.  This  is  plainly  inferable  from  what  has  already  been 
said  about  the  strength  and  operations  of  the  Machine,  and 
is  in  a  vague  way  to  some  extent  understood  or  at  least  sus- 
pected throughout  the  country.  The  object  of  this  chapter  is 
to  emphasize  it,  to  bring  it  home  to  the  reader,  to  make  him 
realize  it,  and  to  cause  him  to  reflect  upon  it,  and  to  thoroughly 
appreciate  the  absolute  impossibility  of  throwing  off  the  odious 
bondage  of  the  politicians  unless  and  until  the  suffrage  is 
restricted  to  a  well-qualified  class  of  voters. 

By  the  extension  of  the  franchise  to  the  unpropertied 
and  thriftless  class  there  was  injected  into  the  veins  of  the 
electoral  body  a  new  and  poisonous  element,  the  virus  of 
cupidity.  A  certain  portion  of  this  class,  the  so-called  floaters, 
is  directly  purchasable;  another  large  portion  is  indirectly 
purchasable  or  controllable  and  capable  of  being  organized 
on  a  basis  of  bargains  made  or  understood.  The  vote  there- 
fore which  by  degrees  as  the  organizations  have  developed  has 
come  to  adhere  to  these  predatory  bands  is  not  confined  merely 
to  the  directly  purchasable;  it  includes  the  controllables;  all 
such  as  the  organization  reaches  by  the  manipulation  of  low 
motives;  by  appeals  to  cupidity  direct  or  indirect;  by  favors 
to  themselves  or  their  relatives,  by  rewards  of  public  em- 
ployment, whether  as  laborers,  petty  officers,  policemen,  fire- 
men or  the  like;  by  protection,  as  in  the  case  of  gamblers, 

158 


THE  CONTROLLABLE  VOTE  159 

liquor  sellers,  and  others  who  adhere  to  the  organization  for 
purposes  of  personal  advantage.  The  organization  therefore 
will  always  be  permanent  and  effective  because  its  members 
are  materially  interested  in  its  existence  and  power. 

The  manner  in  which  the  controllable  vote  is  marshalled  to 
the  polls  is  described  by  Eaton  (Govt.  of  Municipalities, 
chap.  V).  Its  existence  is  recognized  by  him  as  a  reason  why 
our  great  cities  are  not  fit  for  home  rule.  He  divides  this 
vote  into  two  classes:  "the  mercenary  city  vote"  and  "the  vile 
"city  vote,"  But  this  material  is  not  confined  to  the  large  cities, 
it  is  to  be  found  in  towns  and  villages  and  wherever  there  are 
worthless,  shiftless  men.  Writing  in  1871  Sterne  says:  "The 
"nomination  for  public  offices  is  with  us  entirely  in  the  hands 
"of  professional  politicians"  and  this  he  states  to  be  the  case 
equally  in  both  the  country  and  cities.  (Representative  Gov- 
ernment, p.  83.)  The  conditions  have  not  changed  since  his 
time.  The  local  political  associations  or  bands  organized  for  the 
securing,  management  and  operation  of  the  controllable  vote 
have  developed  in  the  last  century.  They  are  now  frequently 
able,  especially  in  the  large  cities,  to  secure  a  considerable  class 
of  recruits  of  a  type  somewhat  superior  to  the  "floaters,"  from 
among  the  social  failures  and  misfits.  Most  of  these  are 
sloppy-minded  fellows,  who,  tempted  by  social  proclivities,  or 
misled  by  weak  ambitions  and  the  appearance  of  political 
success,  join  the  "Regular  Organization"  as  they  call  it.  Some 
of  them  are  rather  vicious;  social  degenerates  or  perverts; 
men  who  have  not  judgment  and  honesty  enough  to  insure 
their  voting  right  even  in  matters  small  enough  to  be  within 
their  mental  grasp;  and  whose  ideals  are  not  honesty,  justice, 
public  honor,  and  intelligence,  but  smartness,  cleverness  and 
guile.  Sometimes  they  are  motived  by  prejudice  and  class 
hatred;  often  they  are  rabid,  loud-mouthed  radicals,  anti- 
capitalists,  etc.  Others  are  weak  and  shiftless,  people  natu- 
rally harmless  but  incapable  of  correct  observation  in  political 
and  economic  matters,  or  of  correct  reasoning  upon  what  they 
observe;  men  who  are  recognized  as  failures  in  the  world,  more 


l6o      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

or  less  incapable  of  self-support;  burdens  on  their  relatives 
and  friends,  or  on  churches  or  societies  with  which  they  or 
their  families  are  connected;  men  who  never  can  get  employ- 
ment, or  if  they  do,  cannot  keep  it;  fellows  of  lazy  and  careless 
habits  who  having  failed  to  do  their  part  in  organized  society 
have  had  to  pay  the  penalty  of  their  remissness.  There  are 
those  who  have  got  into  a  mental  habit  of  chronic  dissatisfaction 
with  the  established  ethics  of  life  and  have  finally  grown  to 
disbelieve  in  them  altogether;  who  doubt  whether  honesty  is 
the  best  policy;  who  are  unable  to  recognize  what  it  is  that 
really  constitutes  success,  or  who  fail  to  find  the  true  path 
to  reach  it.  To  some  of  them  the  man  who  gets  power  or 
money  at  any  price  is  the  successful  man  and  him  they  envy 
and  applaud.  They  themselves  hate  to  work  or  to  deny  them- 
selves, merely  in  order  to  save  or  to  accumulate;  and  yet 
they  want  money,  and  long  for  its  possession,  and  finally 
grow  to  actually  respect  successful  rogues  political  and  other 
who  seem  to  defy  and  triumph  over  the  old  established  rules 
of  social  life.  Bryce  describes  these  organizations  as  he  found 
them  in  New  York  City  in  1894: 

"In  each  of  the  thirty  districts  there  is  a  party  headquarters 
for  the  Committee  and  the  local  party  work,  and  usually,  also, 
a  clubhouse,  where  party  loyalty  is  cemented  over  cards  and  whisky, 
besides  a  certain  number  of  local  'associations/  called  after  promi- 
nent local  politicians,  who  are  expected  to  give  an  annual  picnic, 
or  other  kind  of  treat,  to  their  retainers.  A  good  deal  of  social 
life,  including  dances  and  summer  outings,  goes  on  in  connection 
with  these  clubs."  (American  Commonwealth,  Vol.  II.  p.  398.) 

It  is  such  organizations,  and  not  the  independent  farmers 
or  business  men,  which  because  they  have  united  and  practical 
aims  and  methods  constitute  the  real  political  powers  in  the 
United  States.  They  select  and  put  forward  candidates, 
regulate  and  carry  primaries,  combine  with  other  associations, 
and  constitute  themselves  a  real  effective  working  political 
force.  The  great  extent  of  their  power  will  not  astonish  any- 


THE  CONTROLLABLE  VOTE  l6l 

one  familiar  with  the  effect  of  organization  and  discipline. 
The  strength  of  the  French  Jacobin  party  lay  in  their  clubs. 
The  French  Revolution,  the  American  Revolution  and  the 
Russian  Revolution  were  all  carried  to  such  success  as  they 
had  by  organized  and  active  minorities.  A  magazine  writer 
says  this  of  these  local  political  associations: 

"The  members  of  the  organizations,  like  every  one  else, 
"want  power,  money  and  place.  That  is  the  reason  they  are 
"members.  They  get  leaders  who  will  deliver  a  part  at  least 
"of  what  they  want.  Leaders  who  do  not  deliver  are  quickly 
"decapitated."  Even  should  .reformers  get  control  of  the 
party  (the  writer  says)  and  win  at  the  polls,  these  floaters 
will  break  down  the  new  administration  unless  it  yields  the 
offices  to  them.  (American  Political  Science  Review,  Febru- 
ary, 1917.) 

In  the  words  of  Bryce: 

"The  source  of  power  and  the  cohesive  force  is  the  desire  for 
office,  and  for  office  as  a  means  of  gain.  This  one  cause  is  sufficient 
to  account  for  everything,  when  it  acts,  as  it  does  in  these  cities, 
under  the  condition  of  the  suffrage  of  a  host  of  ignorant  and  pliable 
voters."  (American  Commonwealth,  Vol.  II,  p.  107.) 

These  predatory  bands  are  encouraged  and  supported  not 
only  in  the  ways  already  mentioned,  but  by  the  money  contri- 
butions of  the  well-to-do.  At  every  important  election  enor- 
mous sums  are  raised  and  expended  by  both  parties.  In  1896 
the  Republican  National  Committee  had  at  its  disposal  an 
immense  fund,  variously  stated  at  $6,000,000  to  $16,000,000, 
much  if  it  obtained  from  business  corporations;  it  was 
charged  that  part  of  this  was  used  to  purchase  votes.  It  is 
through  these  local  clubs  and  associations  that  such  money  is 
expended. 

The  case  in  a  nutshell  is  that  of  an  enlisted  regular  army, 
small  in  numbers  with  a  poorly  paid  and  unlettered  rank  and 
file,  but  well  officered  and  capable  of  holding  in  check  a  whole 
population  of  unarmed,  undisciplined  and  unorganized  citi- 


1 62      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

zens.  This  trained  and  subsidized  force  cannot  be  perma- 
nently overthrown  by  any  possible  counter  organization  of 
reformers,  and  all  attempts  in  that  direction  have  always 
proved  and  always  will  prove  futile.  The  mass  of  the  citizens 
have  no  motive  for  permanent  political  organization;  nor  can 
one  be  supplied;  for  all  such  counter-organizations  being 
merely  sentimental,  must  lack  a  motive  or  rallying  force  such 
as  cupidity  affords  to  the  "regulars,"  holding  them  together  and 
inspiring  them  with  persistent  energy.  A  noted  illustration 
of  this  feature  of  politics  appeared  in  the  defeat  in  1884  of  the 
Reform  Party  in  Philadelphia  by  the  Gas  Ring,  after  it  had 
triumphed  in  1881  and  had  effected  many  reforms.  Its  sup- 
porters got  tired  out  and  lost  interest.  They  lacked  the  sus- 
tained motive  which  animated  the  spoilsmen.  In  an  account 
published  at  the  time,  by  two  gentlemen  connected  with  this 
reform  movement,  they  stated,  referring  to  its  work: 

"In  its  nature,  however,  the  remedy  was  esoteric  and  revolutionary, 
and  therefore  necessarily  ephemeral.  It  could  not  retain  the  spoils 
system  and  thereby  attract  the  workers.  Its  candidates,  when 
elected,  often  betrayed  it  and  went  over  to  the  regulars,  who,  they 
foresaw,  had  more  staying  qualities.  Its  members  became  tired 
of  the  thankless  task  of  spending  time  and  money  in  what  must  be 
a  continuous,  unending  battle." 

Instances  of  the  power  of  local  and  political  organization 
built  up  on  a  manhood  suffrage  basis  to  force  a  notoriously 
unfit  candidate  through  a  contested  election  are  extremely 
numerous.  Practically  the  entire  list  of  candidates  at  any 
election  may  serve  to  illustrate  the  practice;  unfitness  for  their 
offices  being  the  rule  among  our  officials.  Two  examples  will 
have  to  suffice  here,  John  Morrissey  of  New  York  was  for 
thirty  years  a  notorious  gambler  and  prize-fighter.  After  at- 
taining manhood  these  were  his  occupations;  he  had  no  other 
except  politics.  The  people  of  the  City  of  New  York  with  full 
knowledge  of  his  record,  elected  him  four  times  to  office  by 
large  majorities.  He  was  in  the  State  Senate  at  his  death, 


THE  CONTROLLABLE  VOTE  163 

having  previously  served  two  terms  in  Congress.  Here  is  his 
official  record,  taken  from  the  Encyclopedia  of  Congress 
Biography. 

"John  Morrissey,  born  in  Ireland  in  1831,  limited  school  education 
in  this  country.  Worked  in  iron  foundry  as  molder.  Active  in 
1848  in  New  York  as  'Anti-Tammany  shoulder  hitter.'  Prize 
fighter  from  1851-1858.  Retired  from  prize  ring  and  became 
proprietor  of  gambling  houses  in  New  York  and  Saratoga,  and  pur- 
chased controlling  interest  in  Saratoga  Race  Course  in  1863. 
Elected  representative  from  New  York  to  4Oth  Congress  as  a  Demo- 
crat; re-elected  to  4ist  Congress.  Engaged  in  New  York  politics 
as  an  opponent  of  Tammany  Hall.  Elected  in  1875  to  State  Senate 
and  re-elected  in  1877.  Died  1878.  (4Oth  Cong.  1867  —  4Ist 
Cong.  1869)." 

Here  is  the  record  of  his  vote  for  Congress: 

1867     McCartin   (Ind.  Dem.) 4,494 

Train  (Rep.) 2,583 

Morrissey  (Dem.) 16,064 

1869     Taylor  (Ind.  Dem.) 6,503 

Elliott   (Rep.) 2,293 

Morrissey  (Dem.) 9,162 

Comment  on  these  figures  is  superfluous. 

William  M.  Tweed  of  New  York  City  had  been  for  many 
years  prior  to  1871,  the  most  notorious  political  boss  and 
corruptionist  in  the  United  States;  probably  in  the  world.  He 
and  his  confederates  systematically  plundered  the  City  of  New 
York  for  a  long  time  by  means  of  false  vouchers,  etc.  The 
amount  of  his  individual  peculations  was  about  $5,000,000. 
The  total  amount  taken  from  the  city  by  the  Tweed  ring  has 
been  estimated  at  $80,000,000.  In  July,  1871,  these  misde- 
meanors were  discovered  and  exposed  in  the  newspapers.  Dur- 
ing that  summer  the  whole  city  was  aroused,  arrests,  indict- 
ments and  prosecutions  of  Tweed  and  his  associates  followed 
thick  and  fast.  Many  of  the  city  and  county  officials  were  im- 
plicated, including  several  judges  of  the  highest  courts;  two 


1 64      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

were  driven  from  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court.  On  Sep- 
tember 4,  1871,  an  immense  mass  meeting  was  held  at  which 
the  famous  Committee  of  Seventy  was  created  to  prosecute  the 
criminals  and  reorganize  the  city  government.  It  appeared 
that  the  county  court  house,  which  was  expected  to  cost 
$2,500,000,  had  cost  no  one  knew  how  much,  but  from  $8,000,- 
ooo  to  $13,000,000  without  being  finished.  On  October  28, 
1871,  Tweed  was  arrested  and  held  to  bail  on  charges  of  mis- 
appropriating public  money.  Notwithstanding  these  exposures 
and  all  the  denunciations  of  Tweed  and  his  confederates  by  the 
press,  he  was  re-elected  in  November,  1871,  to  represent  a 
senatorial  district  of  New  York  City  by  an  increased  vote  of 
three  to  his  competitor's  one.  The  following  are  the  figures 
for  this  and  the  previous  election.  Note  the  increase  in  Tweed's 
vote  following  his  exposure;  and  then  reflect  on  the  beauties 
of  universal  suffrage  and  on  the  value  of  publicity  as  the  sure 
cure  reform  agent  that  we  hear  so  much  of  nowadays. 

1867    Leggatt   (Rep.) 2,175 

Kerrigan  (Ind.  Dem.) 5,9^6 

Tweed  (Dem.) 16,144 

1871     Rossa  (And  Ring  Dem.) 6,927 

Tweed  (Dem.) 18,706 

The  organized  power  which  manhood  suffrage  has  in  the  past 
placed  behind  Morrissey  and  Tweed  and  tens  of  thousands  of 
others  continues  in  operation  to  this  day.  Writing  in  1881, 
Reemelin  says: 

"There  is  but  one  political  status  in  history,  which  at  all  equals 
the  conditions  of  things  that  now  curse  the  United  States.  It  was 
that  of  the  latter  part  of  the  Middle  Ages  when  the  Condottieri 
were  masters  of  society.  But  these  soldiers  of  fortune  had  at  least 
military  capacity;  their  personal  bearing  was  brave,  if  venal.  Our 
politicians  are  many  of  them  ruffians;  true  indeed,  while  it  pays,  to 
a  cause;  but  they  sneak  in  and  out  in  ways  that  are  disgusting  to 
themselves  and  to  those  that  employ  them.  They  are  the  only 
well-defined  class  in  this  country;  they  infect  all  party  movements, 


THE  CONTROLLABLE  VOTE  165 

rule  every  legislature  as  lobbyists,  control  presidents,  are  familiar 
with  judges,  cabinet  ministers,  governors,  and  can  and  do  pro- 
scribe the  political  culture  and  integrity  of  the  land.  They  defeat 
every  reform,  ravish  ballot  boxes,  count  in  and  out  whom  they 
please.  Publicly  divided  into  two  parties,  they  fraternize  in  secret. 
The  voters  are  their  puppets,  the  abuse  of  taxation  and  of  public 
credit  their  means  of  support."  (American  Politics,  p.  149.) 

The  New  York  Evening  Post  of  November  i4th  of  the  year 
1919  refers  to  a  feature  of  the  city  election  just  held  in  San 
Francisco.  One  Schmitz  of  that  city  aafter  twice  being 
"elected  mayor,  underwent  a  sensational  trial  in  1907  on 
"charges  of  corruption,  and  escaped  the  penitentiary  when  the 
"State  Supreme  Court  set  aside  the  verdict  against  him  on  a 
"technicality."  Nevertheless  in  1915  he  ran  again  for  mayor 
and  polled  nearly  one-third  of  the  total  vote;  in  1917  he  polled 
33,000  votes  for  supervisor;  in  1919  he  again  polled  34,128 
votes  for  mayor  out  of  a  total  of  about  100,000.  In  other 
words,  one-third  of  the  San  Francisco  manhood  suffrage  elec- 
torate can  be  marshalled  in  support  of  a  candidate  with  a  no- 
toriously smirched  record. 

We  must  not  allow  ourselves  to  be  lulled  into  indifference  by 
surface  politicians  who  offer  delusive  hopes  of  substantial 
reform  by  flimsy  measures  which  deal  with  symptoms  leaving 
the  electorate  unswept  and  ungarnished  to  continue  as  the 
breeding  place  of  the  malady.  Mr.  Bryce,  for  instance,  who  is 
very  shy  of  criticising  manhood  suffrage,  likes  to  indulge  in 
optimistic  imaginings.  He  says: 

"If  the  path  to  Congress  and  the  State  legislatures  and  the 
higher  municipal  offices  were  cleared  of  the  stumbling-blocks  and 
dirt  heaps  which  now  encumber  it,  cunningly  placed  there  by  the 
professional  politicians,  a  great  change  would  soon  pass  upon  the 
composition  of  legislative  bodies,  and  a  new  spirit  be  felt  in  the 
management  of  State  and  municipal  as  well  as  of  national  affairs." 
(American  Commonwealth,  Vol.  II,  p.  75.) 

It  has  also  been  stated  that  if  the  sky  would  fall  we  would 
catch  larks.  As  Shakespeare  says,  "There  is  great  value  in 


1 66      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

"your  'If.' "  The  principal  "dirt  heap,"  cunningly  placed  in 
the  path  by  the  professional  politicians  is  the  controllable  vote; 
but  Bryce,  himself  a  politician  belonging  to  a  "Liberal"  party, 
is  very  careful  to  shut  his  eyes  every  time  he  smells  that  par- 
ticular dirt  heap.  But  we  Americans  may  as  well,  and  if  we 
desire  results,  we  must,  realize  that  the  political  oligarchies  are 
irresistible  under  the  present  suffrage  system;  that  they  have 
never  been  defeated  in  the  United  States;  that  their  organiza- 
tions backed  by  the  revenue  derived  from  fat  frying,  contribu- 
tions, blackmail,  protection  money,  official  fees  and  perquisites 
and  the  sale  of  offices  and  appointments  have  always  been 
found  in  practice  sufficiently  strong  not  merely  to  hold  their 
own  against  the  public,  but  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  any 
serious  attempt  to  unseat  the  machine  politicians  as  the  masters 
of  the  country.  In  point  of  fact  the  rule  of  the  machine  poli- 
ticians is  practically  unquestioned;  and  the  battles  at  the  polls 
are  and  for  generations  have  actually  been  conflicts  between 
two  political  machines,  between  two  rival  bands  of  political 
leaders  and  their  followers,  in  which  the  public  interest  was 
only  indirect.  The  citizens  have  the  option,  of  course,  either 
of  falling  in  the  rear  of  one  of  the  political  bands  and  helping 
swell  its  numbers  and  secure  its  triumph  or  of  remaining 
aloof;  the  result  in  either  case  will  be  victory  for  the  politicians 
on  one  side  or  the  other. 

Not  only  do  the  political  oligarchies  win  at  the  polls  by  dis- 
cipline and  organization,  but  they  gather  strength  by  the  adop- 
tion of  popular  fads  and  fancies.  For  example,  if  some  fanatics 
start  an  agitation  for  special  reform  legislation  so  called,  the 
organization  may  determine  to  favor  it  as  a  means  for  creating 
new  public  offices  and  patronage  for  the  faithful,  and  so  on. 
The  condition  of  a  community  or  state  desiring  to  have  some 
notion  put  into  legal  effect  would  be  pitiable  without  the  aid 
of  the  party  organizations.  Most  of  the  American  people  have 
no  clear  idea  of  the  working  of  political  machinery;  and  when 
they  want  anything  done  in  politics  they  are  apt  to  run  to  the 
very  politicians  they  habitually  denounce.  In  this  way  astute 


THE  CONTROLLABLE  VOTE  167 

political  leaders  learn  the  course  of  the  popular  currents  and  can 
act  accordingly,  cunningly  adjusting  selfish  motives,  taking  up 
popular  cries  and  adding  strength  and  prestige  to  the  plunder 
bund.  They  have  no  principles  that  stand  in  the  way  of  their 
espousing  any  cause.  Is  the  war  feeling  rampant  or  can  it  be 
readily  developed  and  made  available?  The  politicians  begin 
yelling  for  war  and  waving  the  banner.  Is  woman  suffrage 
popular  or  can  it  be  profitably  used?  We  have  a  female  suf- 
frage plank  forthwith  put  in  the  party  platform  by  men  not  one 
of  whom  has  the  slightest  belief  in  it.  All  this  however  is  con- 
ditioned on  the  proviso  that  nothing  be  put  forward  against  the 
interests  of  organized  politics,  for  the  politicians  do  not  govern 
by  yielding  or  catering  to  majorities,  but  by  means  of  perma- 
nent organizations  which  gather  in,  build  up,  compel  and  con- 
trol majorities.  The  organizations  also  get  power  by  forming 
public  opinion  to  suit  their  purposes.  Their  managers  are  not 
concerned  in  abstract  or  sentimental  questions;  but  where  their 
interests  appear  to  be  involved  they  are  apt  to  intervene 
either  to  create  issues  or  to  mould  public  opinion  or  to  give  it 
a  favorable  twist  in  their  direction. 

Each  political  body  controlled  by  one  of  these  oligarchies 
has  a  moving  force  far  beyond  that  of  the  sum  of  its  individual 
members.  The  old  conception  of  a  constituency  composed  of 
voters  who  each  spontaneously  forms  his  individual  opinion  on 
all  live  political  questions  and  expresses  it  at  the  polls  by 
his  vote  was  of  village  origin;  applicable  at  most  and  only 
partially  to  small  communities.  In  all  cities  and  towns  of  over 
ten  thousand  inhabitants  the  citizen  is  seldom  able  to  form 
his  own  opinion  unaided  even  on  matters  of  local  politics.  He 
is  not  familiar  with  the  city  budget,  nor  with  its  health  con- 
ditions, nor  with  its  public  works,  nor  its  administration  gen- 
erally; nor  with  its  needs  or  its  program  for  the  ensuing  year; 
nor  is  he  usually  personally  acquainted  with  its  officials.  The 
larger  the  city  the  less  each  individual  knows  of  its  affairs. 
As  to  State  matters  the  knowledge  of  the  ordinary  voter  sel- 
dom goes  beyond  the  name  and  politics  of  the  governor  and 


1 68      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

of  the  local  members  of  the  legislature.  The  citizen  therefore 
usually  needs  someone  to  furnish  him  his  opinions  ready  made. 
Indeed,  beliefs  political  or  other  are  seldom  spontaneously 
created  in  the  human  mind;  they  are  usually  injected  into  it; 
and  the  ordinary  citizen  receives  from  without  nearly  all  his 
opinions  on  matters  not  pertaining  to  his  household  or  his 
business.  Now,  the  rival  organizations  in  order  to  catch  the 
Independents,  usually  a  conceited  and  gullible  element,  find  it 
convenient  to  manufacture  "political  issues";  some  trivial, 
empty  controversy  is  started,  often  of  a  personal  nature;  the 
politician  gives  the  cue  to  the  newspapers,  the  papers  pass  on 
the  tale  to  the  reader,  and  there  you  have  so-called  public 
opinion.  In  this  way  was  an  opinion  fabricated  which  helped 
elect  Jackson  to  the  presidency;  he  was  wafted  into  the  White 
House  on  the  wind  of  lies  invented  for  the  purpose,  and  the 
process  has  been  constantly  repeated  ever  since.  Therefore, 
the  managers  of  these  corrupt  political  organizations  are  able 
through  them  to  materially  influence  the  more  honest  and 
intelligent  majorities  by  furnishing  them  ready-made  opinions, 
which  for  lack  of  better  they  are  compelled  to  adopt. 

To  resume:  this  is  the  situation.  The  independent  vote 
being  divided  by  honest  and  therefore  shifting  opinion,  is 
not  and  never  can  be  permanently  organized.  The  controllable 
vote  can  be  and  is  permanently  organized  on  the  basis  of  cu- 
pidity; and  its  organization  is  such  that  it  not  only  controls 
the  entire  election  machinery  but  is  able  to  create,  manage 
and  use  for  its  own  purposes  a  considerable  share  of  the  public 
opinion  of  the  country. 

Thus  it  is  that  the  politicians  are  firmly  intrenched  in  power. 
And  what  is  the  extent  and  character  of  that  power?  Is  it 
limited  either  in  extent  or  by  responsibility  to  the  people? 
Neither.  Within  the  limits  of  the  state  and  federal  constitu- 
tions the  power  of  the  political  oligarchies  is  absolute  and  un- 
controlled except  so  far  as  one  political  organization  chooses 
to  oppose  or  to  interfere  with  the  other.  It  is  part  of  the  com- 
mon talk  of  the  careless  optimists  among  us  and  of  the  con- 


THE  CONTROLLABLE  VOTE  169 

stant  prattle  of  the  newspapers  that  the  people  rule  when  they 
choose  to  do  so;  that  the  overwhelming  majority  are  wise  and 
good  people,  and  that  when  they  "rise  in  their  might' '  they 
can  and  will  set  all  things  straight.  The  newspapers  for 
their  own  purposes  assist  the  illusion  of  popular  choice  at  elec- 
tions, and  print  declamatory  rubbish  of  this  sort  to  flatter 
their  readers  and  to  keep  up  their  interest  in  the  political  game 
so  that  they  will  continue  buying  the  papers.  This  claptrap  has 
a  mischievous  effect,  for  it  tends  to  prevent  the  people  from 
realizing  their  real  situation.  The  picture,  were  it  a  true  one, 
of  a  community,  relieving  its  ordinary  dull  submission  to  mis- 
government  and  plunder  by  occasional  bursts  of  rage  is  far 
from  flattering  to  the  electorate;  but  the  facts  are  even  worse; 
for  the  public  never  does  "rise  in  its  might"  to  overthrow  its 
ruling  oligarchy.  It  merely  changes,  or  pretends  to  change  one 
ruling  band  or  machine  for  another.  Nor  do  the  politicians 
usually  cater  to  the  public,  nor  do  they  need  to  do  so  nearly 
as  much  as  some  of  us  fondly  imagine.  The  common  talk 
about  our  office  holders  being  public  servants  is  cant  and 
humbug.  The  prevalent  popular  conceit  that  the  politicians 
as  a  class  need  public  support,  and  must  and  do  defer  to  the 
public  in  order  to  exist,  lacks  support  in  the  facts,  though  it 
derives  some  color  from  the  appeals  frequently  made  to  the 
electorate  for  votes  by  parties  or  political  machines.  For 
though  the  voter  always  has  a  choice  between  two  or  more  can- 
didates, he  is  never  permitted  to  go  outside  of  the  ranks  of  the 
political  oligarchy,  which  exists  and  flourishes  despite  popular 
criticism  and  dislike. 

Most  of  the  office  holders  are  practically  independent  of  the 
people.  In  the  cities  especially,  they  occupy  salaried  places, 
obtained  by  the  use  of  back  stairs  or  secret  influence.  They 
could  of  course  be  ousted  by  a  united  public  demand,  but  such 
demand  as  that  is  in  most  cases  inconceivable  and  will  never 
be  made;  no  one  but  the  politicians  know  these  men,  or  have 
in  mind  the  particulars  of  their  duties  and  appointments:  and 
none  but  politicians  would  have  the  patience  or  skill  to  manage 


170      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

a  public  movement  to  oust  them.  As  a  matter  of  fact  few  of 
them  ever  are  finally  expelled  from  political  life;  they  are 
merely  transferred  from  time  to  time  from  one  job  to  another. 
To  one  who  knows,  it  is  often  pathetically  ludicrous  to  hear  a 
voter  incensed  by  the  tyranny  or  incapacity  of  some  office 
holder  threaten  to  withhold  his  vote  from  him  "next  time." 
The  irate  citizen  will  probably  forget  all  about  "next  time," 
or  will  never  hear  of  its  having  arrived;  or  the  next  office  will 
be  an  appointive  one,  higher  up.  Even  if  he  do  carry  out  his 
threat  it  will  be  like  putting  a  straw  down  in  an  elephant's 
path;  the  question  whether  the  object  of  his  wrath  will  go  on 
the  ticket  will  be  decided  not  as  the  result  of  a  public  discus- 
sion, but  of  a  secret  conference,  and  whether  elected  or  de- 
feated, the  majorities  will  be  mostly  composed  of  myriads  of 
voters  who  have  blindly  obeyed  the  will  of  the  machine  and 
scarcely  noticed  the  name  of  the  candidate.  The  protest  of  the 
individual  voter  if  too  much  emphasized,  is  most  likely  to  in- 
jure himself.  Even  a  great  daily  city  newspaper  usually  finds 
it  a  hopeless  task  to  attempt  to  down  the  machine  or  its  can- 
didates; indeed,  the  latter  have  been  known  to  triumph  over 
four  or  five  dailies  united.  Sometimes  an  office  holder  is  de- 
tected in  a  scandalous  transaction  and  the  machine  deems  it 
prudent  to  temporarily  retire  him;  but  if  his  dirty  work  was 
done  for  the  organization's  behoof  and  benefit,  he  may  soon 
be  seen  occupying  a  still  higher  appointive  office,  or  placed  on 
the  state  or  county  ticket  at  a  presidential  election  and  voted 
into  power  by  an  immense  self-satisfied  and  innocent  majority 
of  the  very  people  who  a  year  or  two  ago  condemned  him  mer- 
cilessly, and  who  in  the  meantime  have  actually  forgotten  his 
name. 

This  situation  should  be  clearly  understood,  because  there 
are  in  this  country  millions  of  people  so  blind,  ignorant  or  inno- 
cent as  to  imagine  that  the  public  at  large  are  really  partici- 
pants in  the  whole  business  of  politics  and  government  when 
in  fact  they  have  no  share  in  it  whatever.  Let  the  reader  who 
doubts  this  statement  attempt  to  interfere  as  an  amateur  in 


THE  CONTROLLABLE  VOTE  1 71 

politics.  He  will  find  it  impossible  to  do  so  and  that  he  cannot 
interpose  with  any,  even  the  slightest  effect  except  by  himself 
joining  one  of  the  political  gangs  or  parties,  becoming  one  with 
them,  submitting  to  their  rules  and  methods  and  aiding  in 
their  schemes  to  purchase  and  manage  the  controllable  vote. 
To  the  ordinary  voter,  and  to  the  mass  of  millions  of  voters, 
to  that  populace  which  foolishly  believes  itself  the  ruler  of  the 
nation  it  is  forbidden  even  to  know  what  politicians  intend  or 
are  doing.  Each  voter  may  meekly  attend  at  the  polls  and 
ratify  what  one  machine  or  the  other  has  already  determined 
on,  but  there  he  must  stop.  If  he  attempts  to  do  more,  to  pro- 
test or  to  air  his  opinions  he  will  be  ignored ;  and  if  he  persist 
he  will  be  treated  with  the  scorn  and  contempt  due  to  a  med- 
dling fool. 

The  fact  of  the  absolute  control  of  our  government  by  a 
political  oligarchy  has  been  frequently  recognized  and  com- 
mented upon.  Here,  for  instance,  by  a  recent  writer  who  favors 
the  principle  of  a  property  qualification: 

"Our  ruinously  expensive  government,  shameful  system  of  na- 
tional taxation,  blackmailing  of  individuals  and  corporations,  and 
bribery  at  elections  and  in  the  legislatures,  show  clearly  enough 
that  universal  suffrage  does  not  eliminate  the  influence  of  wealth 
from  politics,  or  produce  the  millennium  and  paradise  for  any  but 
scoundrels.  In  fact,  our  present  system  only  puts  wealth,  or 
the  power  which  it  represents,  into  the  hands  of  the  unscrupulous 
who  can  always  use  the  proletariat  for  any  irresponsible  power  that 
is  wanted,  and  for  plundering  the  community  in  some  form,  whether 
by  taxation  or  blackmail.  They  have  become  so  bold  that  they  do 
not  discuss  the  problems  of  government  at  all,  but  carry  on  their 
business  with  the  audacity  of  pirates  and  the  immunity  of  saints. 
Universal  suffrage  is  simply  the  useful  instrument  to  this  end,  and 
the  boasted  policy  which  was  to  cure  poverty  and  destroy  the  in- 
fluence of  wealth  has  only  increased  its  power  and  handed  govern- 
ment over  to  the  anti-social  classes,  with  a  struggle  between  the  anti- 
social rich  to  plunder  everybody  else  and  the  anti-social  poor  to 
do  the  same.  The  proper  limitation  of  the  franchise  would  cut 
off  the  sources  of  the  politician's  influence  over  the  proletariat 


172      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE  UNITED   STATES 

and  place  the  balance  of  power  in  the  great  middle  class  whose 
social  and  moral  qualities  are  superior  to  those  of  the  rich  who 
buy  the  plebs  with  a  mess  of  pottage  or  false  promises  in  order 
to  mulct  society,  and  whose  intelligence  and  prudence  are  superior 
to  those  of  the  proletariat."  (Hyslop  on  Democracy,  pp.  248,  249.) 

The  reader  now  understands  that  there  was  no  exaggeration 
in  the  statement  heretofore  made  and  repeated  in  this  book 
that  the  government  of  this  country  is  entirely  in  the  hands  of 
a  political  oligarchy.  This  being  the  case,  what  is  the  vote 
worth  to  a  fair-minded  independent  American  citizen,  living  in 
New  York,  Chicago  or  Boston,  or  in  any  one  of  the  hundreds 
of  cities  in  the  land?  What  is  the  actual  value  to  the  unproper- 
tied  American  of  the  yearly  privilege  of  voting,  which 
the  twaddlers  and  the  politicians  keep  saying  is  "inesti- 
mable"? Absolutely  nothing  except  for  purposes  of  sale 
to  the  politicians.  This  statement  may  be  sweeping, 
but  it  is  true.  The  boasted  gift  of  the  ballot  has  be- 
come a  mockery  to  every  honest  man  by  being  made 
the  mere  vehicle  or  form  by  which  are  registered  the  de- 
crees and  appointments  of  venal  and  corrupt  political  cliques. 
The  only  remedy  lies  in  the  destruction  of  the  oligarchy  of  poli- 
ticians, and  of  this  there  is  no  hope  or  prospect  while  the  sys- 
tem of  manhood  suffrage  continues  to  produce  the  controllable 
vote. 

"Experience  (says  Bagehot)  proved  what  our  theories  suggest, 
that  the  enfranchisement  of  the  corruptible  is  in  truth  the  estab- 
lishment of  corruption.  The  lesson  of  the  whole  history  indubitably 
is,  that  it  is  in  vain  to  lower  the  level  of  political  representation 
beneath  the  level  of  political  capacity;  that  below  that  level  you 
may  easily  give  nominal  power,  but  cannot  possibly  give  real  power ; 
that  at  best  you  can  give  the  vague  voice  to  an  unreasoning  instinct ; 
that  in  general  you  only  give  the  corruptible  an  opportunity  to  be- 
come corrupt."  (History  of  the  Unreformed  Parliament,  1860.) 

In  other  words,  it  is  practically  impossible  to  bring  the 
rabble  element  to  take  an  active  part  in  good  government. 
[There  is  no  possible  organization  of  these  corrupt  groups 


THE  CONTROLLABLE  VOTE  173 

save  on  the  basis  of  corrupt  leadership.  Bryce  made  a  study 
of  the  subject  and  devotes  several  pages  to  it  (American  Com- 
monwealth, chap,  cxviii),  and  although  always  optimistic, 
he  is  not  able  to  point  to  any  genuine  source  of  relief.  The 
"machine,"  he  says,  "will  not  be  reformed  from  within;  it 
must  be  assailed  from  without."  His  hopes  for  future  relief 
are  based  on  Civil  Service  reform,  the  secret  ballot,  and  time. 
To  rely  on  time  is  childish.  Civil  Service  reform,  if  pushed 
to  extremes,  will  give  us  a  bureaucracy,  such  as  has  afflicted 
Germany  and  Russia.  The  secret  ballot  was  the  hope  of  politi- 
cal dreamers  who  imagined  the  rabble  as  possessed  of  hidden 
springs  of  knowledge  and  virtue;  as  secretly  devoted  to  causes 
and  leaders  they  never  even  heard  of  and  never  want  to  hear  of. 
In  the  same  chapter  Bryce  admits  the  possibility  of  future 
"strife  and  danger,"  and  closes  it  by  speaking  of  "a  hope  that 
is  stronger  than  anxiety."  This  devil-may-care  attitude  may 
be  appropriate  to  a  foreigner,  but  no  American  worth  his  salt 
is  willing  to  sit  down  in  the  face  of  such  threatened  danger  and 
wait  for  time  and  chance  to  save  the  country.  Those  who  will 
not  make  a  move  to  save  themselves  are  not  worth  saving.  The 
Fortnightly  Review  recently  says,  in  explanation  of  Bolshevism 
in  Russia,  that  "the  dregs  of  society  have  come  to  the  surface, 
as  they  will  anywhere  when  the  ordered  fabric  of  civilization 
built  up  on  respect  for  law  and  personal  rights  is  broken  up." 
But  this  is  precisely  what  they  are  constantly  invited  to  do  by 
manhood  suffrage.  If  it  is  not  an  invitation  to  the  dregs  to 
come  to  the  surface,  what  is  it?  If  they  are  in  power  it  is  be- 
cause we  have  been  silly  enough  to  open  the  door.  Today  they 
are  organized  for  party  plunder;  tomorrow  they  may  combine 
to  loot  the  country. 


CHAPTER   XII 

INJURIOUS  EFFECT   OF   MANHOOD   SUFFRAGE   UPON 
AMERICAN  LEGISLATIVE  BODIES 

THE  political  machine,  the  political  ring,  and  the  political 
boss  crush  out  all  independence,  and  bury  all  talent  which 
will  not  lend  itself  to  their  purpose;  discourage  all  statesman- 
ship, wither  all  genuine  political  ambition  and  debauch  the  poli- 
tical conscience  of  the  nation.  One  result  is  plainly  shown  in  a 
distinct  lowering  of  the  quality  of  our  public  officials,  including 
the  membership  of  our  legislative  bodies,  state  and  federal. 
The  establishment  of  machine  or  party  organization  political 
rule  by  means  of  the  controllable  vote  has  replaced  the  former 
free  play  of  individual  talents  and  opinions;  has  discouraged 
our  best  men  from  entering  political  life  and  has  degraded 
those  who  take  part  in  it.  Our  Congressmen  are  of  mediocre 
ability  and  deficient  in  strength  and  honesty;  our  state  legisla- 
tors are  of  a  still  lower  type;  our  legislatures  both  federal  and 
state  and  their  members  are  more  often  the  subject  of  public 
ridicule  than  of  praise;  the  political  opinions  of  their  members 
fail  to  command  public  respect;  with  the  public  at  large  they 
do  not  stand  nearly  so  high  as  during  the  first  forty  years  of  the 
republic,  when  they  were  chosen  by  qualified  constituencies. 
At  that  time  the  mass  of  the  American  voters  were  uneducated 
men,  yet  they  sent  first  rate  men  to  Congress;  now  the  mass 
is  far  better  instructed  and  send  third  rate  men  to  Congress. 
This  is  because  the  national  political  spirit  has  been  lowered ;  it 
no  longer  seeks  to  express  itself  by  its  best.  All  the  above  is 
so  generally  asserted  and  commented  on  in  books,  magazines, 
newspapers  and  in  daily  conversation  as  to  be  notorious.  It 
is  likely  that  every  intelligent  reader  of  this  book  is  fully 
aware  of  it. 

174 


LEGISLATIVE   DECAY  AND   DEGRADATION  175 

In  explanation  of  America's  failure  to  put  the  best  men  in 
high  places,  it  is  sometimes  said  that  it  is  the  result  of  a  certain 
weakness  everywhere  attendant  upon  democracy.  A  similar 
tendency  has  been  observed  by  John  Stuart  Mill,  to  accompany 
the  widening  of  the  suffrage  in  England.  He  says: 

"The  natural  tendency  of  representative  government,  as  of  modern 
civilization,  is  toward  collective  mediocrity;  and  this  tendency  is 
increased  by  all  reductions  and  extensions  of  the  franchise,  their 
effect  being  to  place  the  principal  power  in  the  hands  of  classes  more 
and  more  below  the  highest  level  of  instruction  in  the  community." 
(Representative  Government,  p.  159.) 

In  France  the  deputies  to  the  Chambers  are  elected  on  a 
manhood  basis.  The  result  is  typical  of  the  system.  Prof. 
Garner  says: 

"The  role  of  the  French  Deputy  is  today  largely  that  of  a  sort  of 
charge  d'affaires  sent  to  Paris  to  see  that  its  constituency  obtains  its 
share  of  the  favors  which  the  government  has  for  distribution.  In- 
stead, therefore,  of  occupying  himself  with  questions  of  legislation 
of  interest  to  the  country  as  a  whole,  he  is  engaged  in  playing  the 
role  of  a  mendicant  for  his  petty  district.  He  spends  his  time  in  the 
ante-rooms  of  the  ministers  soliciting  favors  for  his  political  sup- 
porters and  grants  for  his  arrondissement." 

Sometimes  the  constituents  ask  the  deputy  to  procure  nurses 
for  their  families,  or  to  do  shopping.  Some  want  appointments 
as  vendors  of  tobacco;  the  ministers,  to  purchase  their  support, 
agree  to  appoint  their  friends  to  office,  give  them  decorations 
and  advance  them  politically.  The  deputy  must  look  for  ap- 
propriations for  local  railroads,  repairs  for  churches,  pictures 
for  the  exhibition,  public  fountains,  monuments.  All  the  school 
teachers,  tobacconists,  road  overseers  and  letter  carriers  are 
expected  to  work  for  him.  (American  Political  Science  Re- 
view, Vol.  7,  p.  617.)  An  interesting  book  has  recently  been 
published  by  a  member  of  the  French  Academy,  in  which  he 
accuses  democracy  of  having  an  inevitable  tendency  to  produce 
inefficiency  in  government.  He  testifies  that  such  has  been  the 


176      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

experience  in  France.  It  is  in  the  very  spirit  of  democracy,  he 
says,  to  favor  incompetence  in  all  public  officials.  (Cult  of 
Incompetence,  Faguet.) 

This  lowering  of  the  official  standards  has  been  observed 
elsewhere,  wherever  manhood  suffrage  obtains.  Mr.  E.  L. 
Godkin,  a  distinguished  New  York  publicist,  writing  some 
years  ago  said: 

"There  is  not  a  country  in  the  world  living  under  parliamentary 
government  which  has  not  begun  to  complain  of  the  quality  of  its 
legislators.  More  and  more  it  is  said  the  work  of  government  is 
falling  into  the  hands  of  men  to  whom  even  small  pay  is  important 
and  who  are  suspected  of  adding  to  their  income  by  corruption." 
(Unforeseen  Tendencies  of  Democracy,  p.  117.) 

The  apologists  for  our  present  unsatisfactory  political  sys- 
tem point  to  this  universal  democratic  tendency  to  mediocrity 
as  a  reason  for  acquiescing  in  the  present  evil  condition  which 
they  say  is  an  incident  of  democracy  everywhere,  deplorable 
but  unavoidable.  This  is  a  mistaken  attitude.  In  adopting 
the  democratic  regime  we  have  not  bargained  to  perpetuate  its 
errors;  it  is  our  business  to  correct  and  abolish  them.  Hav- 
ing observed  the  democratic  tendency  to  produce  inferiority 
in  public  life  it  is  for  us  to  be  specially  careful  to  adopt  meas- 
ures to  avoid  that  danger.  It  is  plainly  due  to  inferiority  in 
the  voting  mass  and  the  obvious  remedy  is  to  elevate  the 
character  of  the  electorate.  The  inferior  product  referred  to  by 
Faguet  and  others  is  that  of  a  democracy  of  mere  numbers, 
where  there  is  failure  to  give  proper  effect  to  natural  civilizing 
influences.  On  the  other  hand,  in  the  administration  for 
example  of  the  great  cities  of  Europe  where  property  is  rep- 
resented and  character  and  reputation  are  taken  into  account, 
the  operation  of  the  democratic  system  is  comparatively  satis- 
factory. 

America  is  not  lacking  in  men  competent  for  public  life.  The 
field  of  choice  is  large  and  the  material  is  there.  A  member 
of  Congress  represents  a  constituency  of  about  300,000,  or  say 


LEGISLATIVE  DECAY  AND   DEGRADATION  177 

60,000  male  voters.  The  average  state  legislator  may  repre- 
sent a  constituency  of  50,000  or  say  ten  thousand  male  voters. 
The  ablest  man  in  the  district  of  50,000  people  or  among  say 
ten  thousand  men  is  apt  to  be  a  superior  man;  the  ablest  man 
of  the  60,000  men  in  a  congressional  district  must  be  a  very 
superior  man  indeed.  Such  are  the  types  of  men  who  ought  to 
be  in  the  legislature  and  in  Congress  and  who  under  a  proper 
system  would  be  found  there;  a  type  far  superior  to  that  which 
manhood  suffrage  has  actually  produced  for  us  after  ninety 
odd  progressive  years ;  progressive  in  everything  else  except  the 
quality  of  our  government.  Comparisons  are  odious,  and  it 
would  not  be  permissible,  even  if  physically  possible  in  a  work 
like  this,  to  discuss  severally  by  name  the  four  hundred  actual 
members  of  Congress,  still  less  the  ten  thousand  actual  mem- 
bers of  our  State  Legislatures,  or  any  part  of  them.  But  it  must 
be  admitted  that  those  occupying  these  places  are  not  as  a  rule 
first-class  men;  they  do  not  even  measure  up  to  second-class; 
some  of  them  are  very  far  down  on  the  list  indeed.  Recently 
when  engaged  in  the  most  severe  struggle  of  its  history,  the 
nation  found  that  its  best  and  ablest  men  were  in  private  life; 
and  not  only  had  there  been  no  demand  for  them  to  perma- 
nently enter  public  service,  but  its  business  had  been  com- 
mitted to  the  care  of  small,  needy  politicians,  political  adven- 
turers, men  without  political  experience  or  training,  who  had 
been  sent  to  the  state  or  national  capitol  as  a  reward  for  cheap 
political  work,  or  for  money  contributions,  or  for  subserviency 
to  the  political  boss  or  the  machine.  Such  are  the  fruits  of  man- 
hood suffrage  in  the  most  enlightened  country  in  the  world. 

M.  de  Tocqueville,  a  distinguished  Frenchman,  who  visited 
this  country  in  1831,  ten  years  after  manhood  suffrage  had 
been  widely  established,  was  struck  by  the  vulgar  aspect  of  the 
men  whom  he  found  in  the  House  of  Representatives  at  Wash- 
ington. He  said :  "They  are  for  the  most  part  village  lawyers, 
dealers  or  even  men  belonging  to  the  lowest  classes."  No  one 
would  have  said  that  of  the  Continental  Congress  nor  of  any 
Congress  before  Jackson's  time. 


178      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE  UNITED   STATES 

The  very  latest  observers  give  similar  testimony..  Mr.  God- 
kin  notes  the  disappearance  from  Congress  and  from  public 
life  of  the  class  of  statesmen  and  great  political  leaders  of 
former  days,  such  as  Webster,  Clay,  Calhoun,  Silas  Wright, 
Marcy  and  Seward,  and  ascribes  it  to  the  political  bosses  who 
will  tolerate  no  independence.  Mr.  Bryce  says: 

"The  members  of  legislatures  are  not  chosen  for  their  ability  or 
experience,  but  are,  five-sixths  of  them,  little  above  the  average  citi- 
zen. They  are  not  much  respected  or  trusted,  and  finding  no  excep- 
tional virtue  expected  from  them,  they  behave  as  ordinary  men  do 
when  subjected  to  temptations." 

And  again: 

"It  must  be  confessed  that  the  legislative  bodies  of  the  United 
States  have  done  something  to  discredit  representative  government." 
(American  Commonwealth,  Vol.  II,  pp.  587,  609.) 

Writing  of  Congress  in  1907  Professor  Commons  says: 

"Why  is  it  that  a  legislative  assembly  which  in  our  country's 
infancy  summoned  to  its  halls  a  Madison  or  a  Hamilton  to  achieve 
the  liberties  of  the  people  has  now  fallen  so  low  that  our  public- 
spirited  men  hesitate  to  approach  it?"  (Proportional  Representation, 
p.  8.) 

Professor  Commons  does  not  further  attempt  an  answer 
to  his  own  question,  but  it  is  not  difficult  to  find  one.  When 
an  inferior  choice  is  made,  the  fault  is  always  with  the  chooser. 
Congress  is  inferior  because  the  electorate  is  inferior,  and 
because  the  manhood  suffrage  machine  insists  on  mediocrity 
and  slavishness  in  Congress  and  everywhere  else  and  has  low- 
ered the  political  spirit  of  the  nation.  Writing  about  1899 
Professor  Hyslop  of  Columbia  University,  New  York,  says: 

"Congressmen  require  considerable  omniscience  to  fulfil  their 
responsibilities,  but  they  possess  very  little  of  that  qualification, 
and  too  often  no  honesty,  public  spirit,  or  devotion  to  the  real  in- 
terests of  the  country.  Too  poor  to  disregard  the  salary  attached 
to  the  office,  they  must  consider  their  personal  interest  to  secure  a 


LEGISLATIVE   DECAY  AND   DEGRADATION  179 

re-election,  which  puts  them  at  the  mercy  of  any  unscrupulous  man 
or  men  who  may  hold  the  balance  of  power  in  their  districts;  and 
consequently  the  man  who  will  follow  the  'boss'  or  'work'  the 
proper  portion  of  his  constituents  can  get  the  place  and  salary  while 
the  intelligent  and  concientious  man  who  thinks  less  of  the  remunera- 
tion than  of  his  duty  to  the  public  must  remain  at  home.  The  time 
servers,  demagogues,  and  men  with  an  elastic  conscience  are  the  suc- 
cessful bidders  for  the  offices  and  salaries.  They  know  how  to  use 
good  sentiments  and  patriotism  for  votes,  the  voters  all  the  while 
running  trustfully  after  the  devil,  who  is  sure  to  draw  them  into 
the  bottomless  pit."  (Democracy,  p.  172.) 

This  deterioration  is  observable  in  our  public  men  gen- 
erally. 

"Sincere  men  no  longer  deny  that  the  offices  of  trust  and  profit 
are  now  filled,  in  the  United  States,  with  much  more  inferior  men 
than  as  compared  with  former  periods;  indeed,  it  is  admitted  that 
if  we  want  to  find  political  conditions  like  unto  ours,  anywhere,  we 
have  to  search  in  the  records  of  the  worst  phases  of  public  adminis- 
tration which  history  affords."  (Reemelin,  American  Politics,  p.  307.) 

As  late  as  the  present  year,  1919,  Brooks  Adams,  in  one  of 
his  writings,  refers  to  the  undoubtable  deterioration  of  the 
standard  of  our  public  men  as  compared  with  the  time  of  his 
grandfather,  John  Quincy  Adams.  Ostrogorski  writes  that: 

"The  unreasoning  discipline  of  party  and  the  innumerable  con- 
cessions and  humiliations  through  which  it  drags  every  aspirant 
to  a  public  post  have  enfeebled  the  will  of  men  in  politics,  have 
destroyed  their  courage  and  independence  of  mind,  and  almost  ob- 
literated their  dignity  as  human  beings."  (Democracy,  p.  389.) 

Professor  Reinsch  alludes  to  this  moral  degradation  in 
striking  language.  Referring  to  the  bosses,  he  says: 

"Their  servants  are  indeed  paid  liberally  in  money  and  preferment, 
but  they  are  reduced  to  a  position  of  dependence  in  which  the  soul 
is  burnt  to  ashes.  The  cynicism  of  the  political  boss  and  his  satel- 
lites and  the  temptations  which  they  hold  out,  are  the  greatest  cor- 
ruptors  of  youth  in  our  age.  .  .  .  It  is  not  surprising  that  politics 


180      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE  UNITED   STATES 

does  not  in  general  offer  a  satisfying  career.  Able  men  of  high 
character  are  disgusted  with  the  usual  demands  made  upon  politi- 
cians. While  youth  is  corrupted,  manhood  is  tyrannized;  and 
wherever  the  commercial  system  has  been  most  successful,  prop- 
erty, honor,  and  even  life  have  been  rendered  unsafe."  (American 
Legislatures  and  Legislative  Methods,  pp.  239,  240.) 

Next,  John  Stuart  Mill,  a  champion  of  democracy: 

"It  is  an  admitted  fact  that  in  the  American  democracy,  which 
is  constructed  on  this  faulty  model,  the  highly-cultivated  members 
of  the  community,  except  such  of  them  as  are  willing  to  sacrifice 
their  own  opinions  and  modes  of  judgment,  and  become  the  servile 
mouthpieces  of  their  inferiors  in  knowledge,  do  not  even  offer  them- 
selves for  Congress  or  the  State  Legislatures,  so  certain  is  it  that 
they  would  have  no  chance  of  being  returned."  (Representative 
Government,  p.  160.) 

J.  Bleecker  Miller  of  New  York  writes: 

"Our  rights  as  individuals  are  not  properly  protected  by  our  so- 
called  representatives  because  they  as  a  rule  are  not  up  to  the  gen- 
eral moral  and  intellectual  standard  of  the  average  citizen."  (Trade 
Organizations  in  Politics,  p.  38.) 

Let  us  give  a  moment's  special  attention  to  our  state  legis- 
latures. There  manhood  suffrage  has  a  chance  to  do  its  best. 
Both  houses  are  elected  usually  by  manhood  or  universal  suf- 
frage. What  do  we  find?  It  is  notorious  that  the  reputation 
of  the  membership  in  most  of  them  is  so  bad  that  reputable  and 
able  men  absolutely  refuse  to  serve.  It  is  also  notorious  that 
every  meeting  of  a  state  legislature  is  anticipated  with  alarm 
and  anxiety  by  the  industrial  and  business  classes.  Their 
well  founded  fear  is  of  some  piece  of  narrow  or  blundering 
legislation  in  the  interest  of  some  class,  or  which  will  be  inimi- 
cal to  some  industry  or  business,  either  in  the  way  of  restric- 
tion, taxation  or  other  unfairness.  The  chronic  degradation 
of  these  bodies  is  evidenced  by  the  ever  increasing  limi- 
tations upon  them  in  the  state  constitutions.  It  is  a  mat- 
ter of  public  belief  that  three-quarters  of  our  state  legislation 


LEGISLATIVE   DECAY  AND   DEGRADATION  l8l 

is  useless,  and  that  a  considerable  proportion  of  it  is  injurious; 
that  many  of  the  members  spend  a  large  part  of  their  time 
planning  for  the  promotion  of  their  personal  interests,  or  for 
procuring  places  for  themselves  or  their  supporters.  And  yet 
in  this  case  the  facts  probably  surpass  the  rumors.  The  public 
hardly  realizes  the  infamous  character  of  much  of  our  state  leg- 
islation. It  is  a  frequent  practice  of  legislators  to  introduce  bills 
injuriously  affecting  corporations  for  the  mere  purpose  of  black- 
mail. The  corporation  is  expected  to  pay  tribute  in  the  shape 
of  cash  bribes  to  the  members  of  the  committee  having  tie 
bill  in  charge;  and  sometimes  to  other  members  or  to  the  boss 
to  prevent  this  legislation.  On  such  payment  being  made  the 
proposed  measure  is  in  one  way  or  another  defeated  or  allowed 
to  lapse.  Such  extortions  are  variously  called  "hold-ups/' 
"strikes,"  "sandbaggers,"  "fetchers,"  or  "old  friends,"  "bell- 
ringers"  and  "regulators."  During  a  legislative  investigation 
into  insurance  scandals  in  1906  a  president  of  one  of  the  insur- 
ance companies  declared  that  eighty-five  per  cent  of  all  legis- 
lative bills  were  hold-up  measures.  A  great  part  of  the  ses- 
sion is  sometimes,  occupied  in  manoeuvring  these  scandalous 
bills.  Enormous  sums  of  money  must  be  obtained  either  by 
legislators  or  bosses  by  such  means;  and  all  sorts  of  methods, 
including  that  of  a  friendly  game  of  poker  are  used  in  these 
transactions  in  the  transfer  of  the  cash,  some  of  which  no 
doubt  is  ultimately  used  to  influence  elections,  thus  completing 
the  vicious  circle. 

The  following  is  from  a  recognized  authority: 

"The  integrity  of  State  Legislatures  is  at  a  low  ebb.  Their  action 
is  looked  upon  as  largely  controlled  by  the  business  interests  and 
by  political  bosses.  .  .  .  Charges  of  direct  bribery  are  frequent. 
...  It  has  been  well  recognized  that  the  Legislatures  of  certain 
States,  notably  New  Hampshire,  Connecticut,  Pennsylvania  and 
California,  have  been  controlled  through  a  long  series  of  years  by 
great  railway  corporations.  ...  A  number  of  the  members  of 
Legislatures  are  'owned,'  that  is,  controlled  by  some  outside  in- 
terest. Usually  there  is  a  political  leader,  or  boss,  to  whom  the 


1 82       POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

member  is  indebted  for  his  seat.  In  other  cases  a  member  is 
serving  some  particular  interest  to  which  he  is  bound  by  the  fact 
that  his  campaign  expenses  have  been  paid  or  other  substantial 
favors  given  him."  Appleton's  Cyclopedia  of  American  Government, 
1914,  Corruption,  Legislative.) 

In  an  article  on  "Phases  of  State  Legislation,"  Theodore 
Roosevelt  stated  that  about  one-third  of  the  members  of  the 
New  York  Legislature  wherein  he  sat  were  corrupt  or  open  to 
corrupt  influences.  He  had  been  a  member  of  that  legislature 
three  times  and  in  his  American  Ideals  (1897)  ne  gives  some 
account  of  his  experiences  there.  While  careful  not  to  attack 
manhood  suffrage,  he  pictures  these  legislative  bodies  as  very 
inferior  and  corrupt  assemblies  whose  best  men  were  common- 
place" and  narrow-minded;  whose  worst  men  were  venal,  igno- 
rant and  semi-barbarous.  The  best  he  could  say  was  that 
among  its  one  hundred  and  fifty  members,  "there  were  many 
"very  good  men";  but  he  added  "that  there  is  much  viciousness 
"and  political  dishonesty,  much  moral  cowardice  and  a  good 
"deal  of  actual  bribe  taking  in  Albany,  no  one  who  has  had  any 
"practical  experience  in  legislation  can  doubt."  After  a  careful 
examination,  he  and  some  fellow  members  learned  "that  about 
"one-third  of  the  members  were  open  to  corrupt  influences  in 
"some  form  or  other."  (Pp.  64-68.)  He  mentions  four  other 
states  which  are  equally  as  badly  off  in  the  character  of  their 
legislators,  if  not  worse.  Mr.  Godkin  writing  on  the  subject 
says: 

"If  I  said,  for  instance,  that  the  legislature  at  Albany  was  a  school 
of  vice,  a  fountain  of  political  debauchery,  and  that  few  of  the 
younger  men  came  back  from  it  without  having  learned  to  mock 
at  political  purity  or  public  spirit,  I  should  seem  to  be  using  unduly 
strong  language,  and  yet  I  could  fill  nearly  a  volume  with  illustra- 
tions in  support  of  my  charges.  The  temptation  to  use  their  great 
power  for  the  extortion  of  money  from  rich  men  and  rich  cor- 
porations, to  which  the  legislatures  in  the  richer  and  more  pros- 
perous Northern  States  are  exposed,  is  great;  and  the  legislatures 
are  mainly  composed  of  very  poor  men,  with  no  reputation  to  main* 


LEGISLATIVE   DECAY  AND   DEGRADATION  183 

tain,  or  political  future  to  look  after.  The  result  is  that  the  country 
is  filled  with  stories  of  scandals  after  every  adjournment,  and  the 
press  teems  with  abuse,  which  legislators  have  learned  to  treat 
with  silent  contempt  or  ridicule,  so  that  there  is  no  longer  any 
restraint  upon  them."  (Unforeseen  Tendencies  of  Democracy, 
p.  140.) 

The  same  writer  states  that  the  more  intelligent  class  have 
withdrawn  from  legislative  duties;  that  it  is  increasingly  diffi- 
cult to  get  able  men  to  go  to  Congress,  and  almost  impossible 
to  get  them  to  consent  to  go  to  the  state  legislature.  He  might 
have  added  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  them  to  get  the 
favor  of  the  parties  or  the  machines  so  as  to  be  elected.  He 
describes  a  great  part  of  the  actual  legislation  as  absolutely 
absurd.  He  tells  of  the  vicious  practice  of  log-rolling,  that  is, 
the  exchange  between  individual  members  of  Congress  and  of 
the  legislature  of  support  of  one  bad  measure  in  return  for  the 
support  of  another  equally  bad.  He  tells  how  inferior  and 
shiftless  men  are  sent  to  the  legislature  in  order  that  they 
may  get  the  salary  to  help  them  through  the  winter.  He  com- 
plains of  the  immense  legislative  output  which  in  these  days 
is  about  twenty  thousand  new  laws  each  year.  He  describes 
how  corporations  are  at  the  mercy  of  state  bosses  who  manipu- 
late the  legislature,  and  therefore  have  it  in  their  power  to 
raise  their  taxes,  or  in  the  case  of  gas  or  railroad  companies 
to  lower  their  charges  or  to  cause  annoying  and  harassing  in- 
vestigations of  their  affairs.  To  avoid  this  oppression  the  cor- 
porations are,  of  course,  ready  to  pay  blackmail  in  the  shape 
of  campaign  contributions  to  the  bosses,  some  part  of  which 
probably  remains  in  the  pockets  of  the  boss,  but  a  large  part 
of  which  goes  into  a  fund  to  purchase  and  control  the  lower 
classes  of  voters.  As  a  result  large  corporations  are  in  the 
habit  of  employing  an  agent  to  remain  at  the  state  capitol 
during  the  session,  so  as  to  be  on  hand  to  forestall  these  schemes 
by  paying  in  advance.  From  another  writer: 

"The  majority  of  our  legislatures  are  either  constituted  or  con- 
trolled by  men  who  either  cannot  or  dare  not  discuss  the  measures 


184      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMEN1    IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

proposed  by  them.  They  maintain  silence  against  all  reason  and 
vote  submissively  in  obedience  to  a  'boss'  or  they  open  their  mouths 
only  to  obstruct  legislation  and  to  make  a  'strike.'  "  (Democracy, 
Hyslop,  p.  127.) 

This  is  from  Professor  Lecky: 

"A  distrust  of  the  servants  and  representatives  of  the  people  is 
everywhere  manifest.  A  long  and  bitter  experience  has  convinced 
the  people  that  legislators  will  roll  up  the  State  debt  unless  positively 
forbidden  to  go  beyond  a  certain  figure;  that  they  will  suffer  rail- 
roads to  parallel  each  other,  corporations  to  consolidate,  common 
carriers  to  discriminate,  city  councils  to  sell  valuable  franchises  to 
street-car  companies  and  telephone  companies,  unless  the  State  con- 
stitution expressly  declares  that  such  things  shall  not  be.  So  far 
has  this  system  of  prohibition  been  carried,  that  many  legislatures 
are  not  allowed  to  enact  any  private  or  special  legislation;  are  not 
allowed  to  relieve  individuals  or  corporations  from  obligations  to  the 
State;  are  not  allowed  to  pass  a  bill  in  which  any  member  is  inter- 
ested, or  to  loan  the  credit  of  the  State,  or  to  consider  money  bills 
in  the  last  hours  of  the  session."  (Democracy  and  Liberty,  Vol.  I., 
p.  103.) 

In  1910  in  a  speech  in  Chicago  Roosevelt  said  of  the  Illinois 
Legislature,  referring  to  recent  disclosures,  that  it  "was  guilty 
aof  the  foulest  and  basest  corruption."  (New  Nationalism, 
p.  in.) 

Referring  to  the  Gas  Ring  misgovernment  in  Philadelphia 
in  and  prior  to  1870,  Bryce  says: 

"The  Pennsylvania  House  of  Representatives  was  notoriously  a 
tainted  body,  and  the  Senate  no  better,  or  perhaps  worse.  The 
Philadelphia  politicians,  partly  by  their  command  of  the  Philadel- 
phia members,  partly  by  the  other  inducements  at  their  command, 
were  able  to  stop  all  proceedings  in  the  legislature  hostile  to  them- 
selves, and  did  in  fact,  as  will  appear  presently,  frequently  balk  the 
efforts  which  the  reformers  made  in  that  quarter."  (American  Com- 
monwealth, Vol.  II,  p.  412.) 

Bryce  describes  the  condition  of  the  California  state  gov- 
ernment in  1877: 


LEGISLATIVE   DECAY  AND   DEGRADATION  185 

"Both  in  the  country  and  in  the  city  there  was  disgust  with  poli- 
tics and  politicians.  The  legislature  was  composed  almost  wholly 
either  of  office-seekers  from  the  city  or  of  petty  country  lawyers, 
needy  and  narrow-minded  men.  Those  who  had  virtue  enough  not 
to  be  'got  at'  by  the  great  corporations,  had  not  intelligence  enough 
to  know  how  to  resist  their  devices.  It  was  a  common  saying  in 
the  State  that  each  successive  legislature  was  worse  than  its  prede- 
cessor. The  meeting  of  the  representatives  of  the  people  was  seen 
with  anxiety,  their  departure  with  relief.  Some  opprobrious  epithet 
was  bestowed  upon  each.  One  was,  'the  legislature  of  a  thousand 
drinks';  another,  'the  legislature  of  a  thousand  steals.'  County  gov- 
ernment was  little  better;  city  government  was  even  worse." 

And  later,  writing  in  1894,  he  says  there  is  no  improvement 
in  that  State.  (American  Commonwealth,  Vol.  II,  pp.  430  and 
441.)  No  wonder  that  by  its  state  constitution  California  has 
felt  itself  obliged  to  disable  its  legislature  by  prohibiting  to 
it  thirty- three  different  classes  of  state  legislation. 

Professor  John  R.  Commons  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin, 
writing  in  1907,  quotes  the  San  Francisco  Bulletin  as  saying: 

"It  is  not  possible  to  speak  in  measured  terms  of  the  thing  that 
goes  by  the  name  of  legislature  in  this  State.  It  has  of  late  years 
been  the  vilest  deliberative  body  in  the  world.  The  assemblage 
has  become  one  of  bandits  instead  of  law-makers.  Everything 
within  its  grasp  for  years  has  been  for  sale.  The  commissions  to 
high  office  which  it  confers  are  the  outward  and  visible  signs  of 
felony  rather  than  of  careful  and  wise  selection."  (Proportional 
Representation,  p.  i.) 

The  author  himself  says: 

"Every  State  in  the  Union  can  furnish  examples  more  or  less 
approaching  to  this.  Statements  almost  as  extreme  are  made  re- 
garding Congress.  Great  corporations  and  syndicates  seeking  legis- 
lative favors  are  known  to  control  the  acts  of  both  branches.  The 
patriotic  ability  and  even  the  personal  character  of  members  are 
widely  distrusted  and  denounced.  These  outcries  are  not  made  only 
in  a  spirit  of  partisanship,  but  respectable  party  papers  denounce 
unsparingly  legislatures  and  councils  whose  majorities  are  of  their 


1 86       POPULAR    MISGOVERNMENT    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

own  political  complexion.  The  people  at  large  join  in  the  attack. 
When  statements  so  extreme  as  that  given  above  are  made  by 
reputable  papers  and  citizens,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  people  at 
large  have  come  thoroughly  to  distrust  their  law-makers.  Charges 
of  corruption  and  bribery  are  so  abundant  as  to  be  taken  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course.  The  honored  historical  name  of  alderman  has  fre- 
quently become  a  stigma  of  suspicion  and  disgrace."  (Idem,  p.  2.) 

The  same  malign  control  by  bosses  and  rings  heretofore 
so  often  referred  to  is  directly  responsible  for  this  sad  condi- 
tion of  affairs. 

"Thus  it  would  happen  not  infrequently  that  a  state  legislature 
almost  equally  divided  between  the  two  parties  would  not  have  one 
member  in  twenty  or  one  in  fifty  whose  nomination  and  election 
had  not  been  agreeable  to  forces  behind  the  two  machines,  and 
whose  legislative  action  could  not  be  counted  upon  by  those  who 
held  the  party  reins.  ...  It  is  probably  within  the  bounds  of 
truth  to  say  that  there  is  not  one  of  our  states  which  has  not  to  a 
very  considerable  extent  come  under  the  baneful  influence  of  this 
system,  by  means  of  which  the  political  life  of  the  people  is  domi- 
nated and  exploited  for  private  ends  by  rich  working  corporations 
in  alliance  with  professional  party  politicians."  (Shaw,  Political 
Problems,  pp.  148,  149.) 

Professor  Reinsch  in  his  work  hereinbefore  referred  to 
(American  Legislatures)  gives  an  extended  account  of  the 
means  and  methods  of  legislative  bribery  through  the  lobby, 
resulting  in  "commercial  governments"  and  a  situation  where 
"any  business  man  can  get  what  he  wants  at  a  reasonable 
price."  He  describes  the  "boss"  as  the  fruit  and  flower  of  the 
system,  his  absolute  authority,  his  endless  tenure  of  power, 
and  the  degrading  influence  of  the  machine.  The  reader  will 
find  in  this  work  much  of  interest  on  the  subject  of  corrupt 
state  legislation  which  cannot  be  reproduced  here. 

The  legislative  evil  record  still  continues  to  be  made.  The 
tree  and  the  fruit  are  the  same  year  after  year.  In  the  session 
of  1919  forty-six  bills  affecting  New  York  City  which  passed 
both  houses  of  the  New  York  Legislature  were  so  flagrantly 


LEGISLATIVE   DECAY   AND   DEGRADATION  187 

bad  as  to  require  and  receive  vetoes.  The  Citizens  Union  of 
New  York  reported  that  twenty-eight  additional  noxious  city 
bills  actually  became  laws.  Allowing  an  equal  grist  for  the 
rest  of  the  state  and  we  have  a  total  of  one  hundred  and  forty- 
eight  mischievous  measures  which  passed  both  houses  in  one 
session.  Of  the  work  of  this  very  recent  session  of  the  New 
York  Legislature,  the  New  York  Evening  Post,  a  very  respec- 
table paper,  says  (August  n,  1919)* 

"Despite  the  influence  of  the  Governor  and  the  efforts  of  the  legis- 
lative leaders,  log-rolling,  trading,  and  dickering  continued  as  usual. 
Carelessness  and  sloppiness  were  characteristic  of  the  session.  In 
his  veto  messages  the  Governor  called  attention  of  the  members  to 
this  matter.  Again  and  again  bills  slipped  through  one  house  or  the 
other  in  such  shape  that  they  had  to  be  recalled  and  repassed." 

Charges  against  congressmen  and  state  legislators  of 
accepting  bribes  have  been  frequently  made,  and  instances  are 
given  in  this  book  of  public  exposures  in  consequence.  Some 
years  ago  the  writer  was  informed  by  a  leading  politician  that 
the  truth  far  exceeded  public  rumor,  and  his  information  else- 
where obtained  leads  him  to  believe  that  this  offense  has  been 
common.  Bryce  says  in  substance  that  bribery  in  Congress  is 
confined  to  say  five  per  cent  of  the  whole  number;  that  it  is 
more  common  in  the  legislatures  of  a  few  states;  that  it  is  rare 
among  the  chief  state  officials  and  state  judges;  that  the  influ- 
ence of  other  considerations  than  money  prevails  among  legisla- 
tors to  a  somewhat  larger  extent;  that  one  may  roughly  conjec- 
ture that  from  fifteen  to  twenty  per  cent  of  the  members  of 
Congress,  or  of  an  average  state  legislature,  could  thus  be 
reached,  and  that  the  jobbery  or  misuse  of  a  public  position  for 
the  benefit  of  individuals  is  common  in  large  cities.  That  is  to 
say,  about  twenty  members  of  each  Congress  are  for  sale  for 
cash,  and  from  sixty  to  eighty  can  be  bought  for  "other  con- 
"siderations."  According  to  Bryce,  and  he  is  probably  very 
conservative,  one  can  calculate  that  about  one  thousand,  all 
told,  members  of  Congress  and  the  various  state  legislatures 


1 88      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

sitting  at  one  time  are  absolutely  corrupt.  (American  Com- 
monwealth, VoL  II,  p.  164.)  Looking  through  the  pages  of 
Bryce's  great  work,  one  meets  casual  references  to  noted  in- 
stances of  such  improprieties;  as  for  instance,  secret  influences 
brought  to  bear  upon  legislatures  in  reference  to  the  Granger 
laws;  improper  relations  between  railroads  and  legislators, 
amounting  to  secret  control  of  the  legislatures  by  the  railroads, 
and  to  blackmailing  of  the  railroads  by  the  legislatures;  thus 
requiring  the  presence  of  adroit  railway  agents  at  the  state 
capitals,  well  supplied  with  money,  to  defeat  legislative  at- 
tacks made  by  blackmailers,  or  the  tools  of  rival  roads. 
(American  Commonwealth,  Chap.  CIII.) 

"A  large  number  of  congressmen  were  treated  to  a  very  profitable 
investment  in  connection  with  the  building  of  the  Union  Pacific 
Railway.  If  this  was  not  technical  bribery,  it  was  accounted  its 
moral  equivalent."  (Cyclopedia  American  Government,  Bribery.) 

And  in  the  same  article  it  is  stated  that  "State  Legislatures 
"are  less  subject  to  bribery  than  are  City  Councils,  but  here 
"also  the  cases  of  proven  or  confessed  bribery  are  numerous." 

It  is  difficult  to  imagine  what  can  be  said  by  the  defenders 
of  manhood  suffrage  in  reply  to  these  charges  and  proofs.  The 
witnesses  are  mostly  Americans,  friends  of  democracy,  men  of 
trained  minds  and  high  standing,  speaking  from  observation 
and  common  report.  Look  again  at  the  array  of  names :  James 
Bryce;  Theodore  Roosevelt;  John  Stuart  Mill;  Professor  Gar- 
ner; M.  Faguet;  E.  L.  Godkin;  Professor  Commons;  Profes- 
sor Hyslop;  Ostrogorski;  Lecky;  Professor  Reinsch;  Albert 
Shaw;  J.  Bleecker  Miller;  M.  de  Tocqueville;  Reemelin; 
Brooks  Adams;  New  York  Evening  Post;  Appleton's  Cyclo- 
pedia; San  Francisco  Bulletin;  American  Political  Science  Re- 
view; no  one  can  impeach  such  testimony.  It  covers  the  whole 
period  under  survey.  These  witnesses  charge  that  the  present 
system  of  election  of  legislators  by  manhood  suffrage  in  the  two 
most  enlightened  countries  where  practised,  namely,  France  and 
the  United  States,  has  produced  inferior  legislators;  that  the 


LEGISLATIVE   DECAY  AND   DEGRADATION  1 89 

tendency  to  widen  the  suffrage  has  everywhere  brought  about 
like  results;  that  the  quality  of  the  membership  of  the  United 
States  Congress  has  strikingly  deteriorated  under  the  manhood 
suffrage  regime,  while  the  state  legislatures  composed  of  still  in- 
ferior men  have  actually  become  infested  by  blackmailers  and 
the  like;  that  the  legislature  of  New  York  is  like  a  school  of 
vice,  while  that  of  California  is  vile,  an  assemblage  of  bandits; 
that  the  others  are  similarly  corrupt;  their  members  being  the 
tools  of  political  machines,  and  that  highly  cultivated  men 
therefore  refuse  to  accept  seats  in  these  bodies.  A  great  part 
of  what  they  thus  assert  is  within  the  knowledge  or  reach  of 
knowledge  of  most  of  us.  Is  the  American  reader  of  these  lines 
willing  to  continue  to  tolerate  longer  this  atrocious  system? 
Whether  he  believes  in  a  property  qualification  for  voters  or 
not,  the  writer  calls  upon  him  to  resolve  that  this  present  foul 
system  be  forever  destroyed,  and  be  replaced  by  something 
which  an  American  can  think  of  without  rage  and  shame. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  AS  APPLIED  TO  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF 
AMERICAN  CITIES  HAS  NOT  ONLY  BEEN  A  FAILURE  BUT  A 
DISASTER  AND  A  SCANDAL 

THE  worst  ravages  of  pestilence  do  not  appear  in  thinly  set- 
tled countries,  but  in  the  dense  populations  of  cities.  In  like 
manner  the  worst  records  of  our  manhood  suffrage  misgovern- 
ment  are  to  be  found  in  American  cities  rather  than  in  country 
districts.  In  the  United  States  all  elective  municipal  officers 
are  chosen  by  manhood  suffrage.  In  Europe  this  is  not  the 
case.  In  England,  France  and  Germany  it  has  not  been  con- 
sidered safe  to  trust  the  populace  with  the  power  to  squander 
away  the  city  taxes;  the  municipal  purse  is  by  one  device  or 
another  kept  within  the  control  of  the  local  property  owners 
and  business  men.  The  result  is  that  the  city  governments  in 
all  these  three  countries  are  far  superior  to  ours.  A  prominent 
American  writer  says: 

"There  can  be  no  reason  or  justice  in  permitting  people  who  do 
not  pay  taxes  to  vote  away  the  property  of  those  who  do.  In  the 
European  cities,  however  wide  the  suffrage  may  be  in  national  mat- 
ters, probably  not  one-half  the  men  vote  for  city  offices.  In  Great 
Britain,  the  Low  Countries,  Germany,  Austria-Hungary  and  Italy 
such  an  absurdity  as  universal  suffrage  for  city  officers  is  unknown 
(except  in  the  very  rare  cases  where  a  non- taxpayer's  educational 
qualifications  prevent  his  voting  being  absurd);  and  it  is  in  these 
countries  that  cities  are  best  and  most  fully  developed,  and  do 
most  for  the  health  and  happiness  of  the  very  people  who  are  not 
permitted  to  vote."  (Holt,  Civic  Relations,  1907.) 

Limit  of  space  forbids  going  into  the  details  of  the  municipal 
governments  of  the  foreign  countries  just  referred  to;  for  that 
the  reader  is  recommended  to  Munro's  Government  of  Euro- 

190 


THE  PLUNDER  OF   THE   CITIES  IQ1 

pean  Cities  and  Albert  Shaw's  two  works,  Municipal  Govern- 
ment in  Great  Britain  and  Municipal  Government  in 
Continental  Europe.  The  important  thing  in  city  politics  is 
to  get  the  right  men  in  office,  and  the  inferiority  of  American 
public  officials  as  a  class  as  compared  with  European  office 
holders  is  well  known.  In  the  New  York  Times  of  October  19, 
1919,  this  inferiority  is  stated  as  a  cause  for  a  certain  con- 
tempt of  foreigners  for  American  institutions  for  which  you 
can  scarcely  blame  them.  We  quote: 

"The  very  poor  types  of  public  officials  in  our  large  cities, 
"particularly  in  New  York,  make  a  decided  impression  on  our 
"foreign  element.  In  their  native  countries  public  officials  are 
"held  in  great  respect,  nearly  all  of  them  being  men  of  standing 
"in  their  communities  and  generally  men  of  education  and  cul- 
ture. Socialist  agitators  take  great  delight  in  holding  up  to 
"ridicule  the  grade  of  men  appointed  and  elected  to  public  office 
"in  this  country.  Most  of  these  agitators  being  foreign  born 
"realize  that  the  high  ideals  of  the  foreign  born  have  been  shat- 
tered after  they  have  learned  that  ignorant  and  uncouth  men 
can  reach  high  public  position." 

The  complete  failure  of  municipal  government  in  the  United 
States  has  caused  great  disappointment  not  only  to  our  city 
taxpayers,  but  to  the  friends  of  democracy  throughout  the 
world.  Those  who  can  not  or  will  not  see  the  fatal  defects  in 
manhood  suffrage  are  quite  at  a  loss  to  explain  the  situation. 
One  of  these  is  Lord  Bryce,  who  says: 

"The  phenomena  of  municipal  democracy  in  the  United  States 
are  the  most  remarkable  and  least  laudable  which  the  modern  world 
has  witnessed;  and  they  present  some  evils  which  no  political 
philosopher,  however  unfriendly  to  popular  government,  appears  to 
have  foreseen,  evils  which  have  scarcely  showed  themselves  in  the 
cities  of  Europe,  and  unlike  those  which  were  thought  characteristic 
of  the  rule  of  the  masses  in  ancient  times."  (American  Common- 
wealth, Vol.  II,  p.  377.) 

It  would  be  impossible  in  this  volume  to  give  even  a  summary 
account  of  the  effects  of  manhood  suffrage  upon  municipal  gov- 


I Q2      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

ernment  in  this  country.  In  New  York  City  the  ill  results  of  the 
extension  were  plainly  discernible  shortly  after  its  institution 
in  1826  and  increasingly  thereafter.  (See  Myers'  History  of 
Tammany  Hall;  the  Evarts  Report;  and  Moss's  American  Me- 
tropolis hereinafter  referred  to.)  The  local  affairs  of  the 
other  smaller  and  newer  cities  were  not  of  course  prominent 
till  later  years.  There  is  not  space  here  to  treat  the  subject  in 
detail,  and  only  a  few  illustrative  instances  can  be  given.  But 
this  must  be  said  at  the  outset,  that  the  record  of  city  govern- 
ment in  the  United  States  since  1830  has  been  infamous;  that 
on  the  whole  it  is  a  history  of  ignorance,  incapacity,  venality, 
waste,  extravagance,  corruption  and  robbery,  carried  to  such 
an  extent  as  to  demonstrate  the  utter  incapacity  of  the  popu- 
lace for  self-government;  and  that  nothing  but  the  circum- 
stance that  in  one  way  or  another  means  have  been  found 
to  check  the  power  of  the  people  and  their  municipal  represen- 
tatives put  in  power  by  the  controllable  vote  has  saved  many 
of  these  cities  from  bankruptcy  and  ruin.  Looking  into  the 
record  of  the  conditions  of  our  own  time  in  our  great  cities,  we 
find  them  thus  described  by  Bryce: 

"A  vast  population  of  ignorant  immigrants ;  the  leading  men 
"all  intensely  occupied  with  business;  communities  so  large 
"that  people  know  little  of  one  another,  and  that  the  interest  of 
"each  individual  in  good  government  is  comparatively  small." 
There  are,  he  says,  large  numbers  of  ignorant  and  incompetent 
immigrants  controlled  by  party  managers;  a  large  shifting 
population,  and  the  political  machinery  so  heavy  and  compli- 
cated as  to  discourage  the  individual,  who  feels  himself  a  drop 
in  the  ocean.  "The  offices  are  well  paid,  the  patronage  is 
"large,  the  opportunities  for  jobs,  commissions  on  contracts, 
"pickings,  and  even  stealings,  are  enormous.  Hence,  it  is  well 
"worth  the  while  of  unscrupulous  men  to  gain  control  of  the 
"machinery  by  which  these  prizes  may  be  won." 

He  further  says: 

"The  best  proof  of  dissatisfaction  is  to  be  found  in  the  frequent 
changes  of  system  and  method.  What  Dante  said  of  his  own  city 


THE   PLUNDER   OF   THE   CITIES  1 93 

may  be  said  of  the  cities  of  America:  they  are  like  the  sick  man 
who  finds  no  rest  upon  his  bed,  but  seeks  to  ease  his  pain  by  turning 
from  side  to  side.  Every  now  and  then  the  patient  finds  some  relief 
in  a  drastic  remedy,  such  as  the  enactment  of  a  new  charter  and  the 
expulsion  at  an  election  of  a  gang  of  knaves.  Presently,  however, 
the  weak  points  of  the  charter  are  discovered,  the  State  legislature 
again  begins  to  interfere  by  special  acts;  civic  zeal  grows  cold  and 
allows  bad  men  to  creep  back  into  the  chief  posts."  (American 
Commonwealth,  Vol.  I,  p.  649;  Vol.  II,  99-100.') 

Bryce  condemns  the  giving  the  suffrage  to  the  immigrants. 
"Such  a  sacrifice  of  common  sense  to  abstract  principles  has 
"seldom  been  made  by  any  country."  But  it  is  manifestly  ab- 
surd to  charge  all  our  municipal  corruption  upon  the  immi- 
grants. Our  native  crop  of  controllable  voters  far  exceeds  the 
imported  one.  Bryce  is  compelled  to  recognize  the  situation  in 
Philadelphia,  where  the  Gas  Ring  ruled  politics  for  a  genera- 
tion by  controlling  the  native  American  vote  under  American 
managers.  He  says  that  "most  of  the  corrupt  leaders  in  Phila- 
"delphia  are  not  Irishmen,  but  Americans  born  and  bred,  and 
"that  in  none  of  the  larger  cities  is  the  percentage  of  recent 
"immigrants  so  small."  (American  Commonwealth,  Vol.  II, 
"p.  421.)  Though  nothing  will  induce  Bryce,  or  any  other 
British  or  American  politician,  to  see  the  deformities  of  man- 
hood suffrage,  yet  he  is  willing  to  testify  to  the  facts.  He  says: 

"There  is  no  denying  that  the  government  of  cities  is  the  one  con- 
spicuous failure  of  the  United  States.  ...  In  New  York  extrava- 
gance, corruption  and  mismanagement  have  revealed  themselves  on 
the  largest  scale.  .  .  .  But  there  is  not  a  city  with  a  population 
exceeding  200,000  where  the  poison  germs  have  not  sprung  into 
a  vigorous  life;  and  in  some  of  the  smaller  ones  down  to  70,000  it 
needs  no  microscope  to  note  the  results  of  their  growth.  Even  in 
cities  of  the  third  rank  similar  phenomena  may  occasionally  be  dis- 
cerned." (American  Commonwealth,  Vol.  I,  p.  608  —  quoted  ap- 
provingly by  Rhodes,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  62.) 

It  is  impossible  to  give  here  even  an  outline  of  the  mass  of 
evidence  in  the  case  or  to  make  an  approach  to  a  picture  of  the 


1 94      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT    IN    THE   UNITED    STATES 

enormous  pillage  that  has  been  in  progress  in  our  municipal 
affairs.  Steffens  in  The  Shame  of  Cities  gives  a  summary  of 
part  of  the  facts  relating  to  six  American  cities,  namely:  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  St.  Louis,  Chicago,  Minneapolis  and  Pitts- 
burgh; and  it  makes  a  book  of  300  pages.  In  each  of  the  gov- 
ernments of  those  cities  Steffens  discovered  organized  graft, 
bribery  and  corruption.  In  St.  Louis  he  reports  a  number  of 
the  members  of  the  municipal  assembly  as  "utterly  illiterate 
and  lacking  in  ordinary  intelligence  ...  in  some  no  trace  of 
mentality  or  morality  could  be  found ;  in  others  a  low  order  of 
training  appeared,  united  with  base  cunning,  groveling  in- 
stincts and  sordid  desires.  Unqualified  to  respond  to  the  ordi- 
nary requirements  of  life  they  are  truly  incapable  of  compre- 
hending the  significance  of  an  ordinance  and  are  incapacitated, 
both  by  nature  and  training,  to  be  the  makers  of  laws."  Fran- 
chises, etc.,  worth  $50,000,000  had  been  granted  in  the  past 
ten  years  and  scarcely  one  without  bribery.  As  much  as 
$50,000  was  paid  for  a  vote  in  the  municipal  assembly.  Com- 
panies were  driven  out  by  blackmail.  Boodling  was  the  real 
business  of  the  city  officials.  In  Minneapolis  in  1901  and  there- 
after the  city  authorities  were  in  a  regular  partnership  with  the 
underworld  and  a  large  and  steady  revenue  was  collected  for 
the  ring  by  corrupt  methods.  In  Pittsburgh  Steffens  found  a 
boss  in  control  and  the  usual  systematic  corruption.  He  no- 
ticed that  the  Pittsburgh  method  was  to  put  into  all  places 
of  power  dependents  of  the  boss,  men  without  visible  means  of 
support;  in  fact  the  manhood  suffrage  idea  was  carried  out 
to  its  logical  results.  There  was  an  agreement  in  writing  be- 
tween the  city  boss  and  the  state  boss  (Quay)  for  the  control 
of  politics.  Space  will  not  permit  the  insertion  here  even  of 
Steffens'  summary  of  Pittsburgh  graft  and  corruption;  it  dealt 
with  franchises,  public  contracts,  profits  of  vice,  public  funds 
and  miscellaneous  sources  of  revenue.  Philadelphia  is  de- 
scribed as  the  most  corrupt  city  in  the  land.  Good  citizens 
there  ask  "What  is  the  use  of  voting?"  The  city  machine  is  a 
mere  dependent  of  the  state  machine.  The  system  there  is  to 


THE   PLUNDER   OF    THE    CITIES  1 95 

apply  to  the  public  service  by  way  of  compromise  with  the 
public  a  handsome  percentage  of  the  collected  taxes.  Steffens 
recognized  in  Philadelphia  the  complete  and  permanent  over- 
throw of  popular  and  honest  government.  In  Chicago  he  found 
a  persistent  struggle  going  on  against  the  ever  active  and  ever 
powerful  poison  of  corruption.  He  claims  that  some  headway 
has  been  made  in  the  direction  of  reform  by  the  efforts  of  a 
powerful  Chicago  organization  known  as  "The  Municipal 
Voter's  League,"  a  watchdog  affair,  reaching  after  control,  and 
whose  existence  is  a  proof  and  a  confession  of  the  absolute 
breakdown  of  manhood  suffrage.  Steffens  was  compelled  to 
say  that  he  saw  no  remedy  for  the  sad  state  of  affairs  which  he 
described  as  existing  in  these  six  different  cities. 

The  testimony  from  all  sources  and  periods  since  1840  goes 
to  establish  the  prevalence  of  municipal  corruption  and  mis- 
government.  Here  is  Ostrogorski,  referring  to  the  year  1872 
and  succeeding  years : 

"Almost  all  the  cities  whose  population  exceeded  one  hundred 
thousand,  or  even  a  lesser  figure,  had  their  Rings.  In  the  course  of 
these  last  years,  many  great  cities,  such  as  St.  Louis,  Minneapolis, 
San  Francisco,  added  new  pages  of  disgrace  to  the  history  of  munic- 
ipal corruption  carried  on  under  the  flag  of  political  parties."  (De- 
mocracy and  Political  Parties  in  the  United  States,  pp.  84,  85.) 

Another  writer  (J.  B.  Miller)  states  that  the  debts  of  the 
cities  of  the  Union  rose  in  the  twenty  years  from  1860  to  1880 
from  about  $100,000,000  to  $682,000,000;  from  1860  to  1875 
the  increase  of  debt  in  our  eighteen  largest  cities  was  270  per 
cent;  the  increase  of  taxation  was  362  per  cent;  whereas  the 
increase  in  taxable  valuation  was  but  157  per  cent  and  in  popu- 
lation but  70  per  cent.  In  1883  the  late  Andrew  D.  White 
wrote  as  follows: 

"I  wish  to  deliberately  state  a  fact  easy  of  verification  —  the  fact 
that  whereas,  as  a  rule,  in  other  civilized  countries  municipal  Gov- 
ernments have  been  steadily  improving  until  they  have  been  made 
generally  honest  and  serviceable,  our  own,  as  a  rule,  are  the  worst 


196      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

in  the  world,  and  they  are  steadily  growing  worse  every  day."    (Mes- 
sage of  Nineteenth  Century  to  Twentieth.) 

In  a  work  published  in  1899  by  Dorman  B.  Eaton  on  the 
Government  of  Municipalities,  he  summarizes  in  Chapter  II 
the  well  known  and  undeniable  evils  connected  with  our  mu- 
nicipal affairs.  He  condemns  our  municipal  governments  gen- 
erally as  needlessly  expensive  and  inefficient  institutions, 
wherein  bribery,  blackmail  and  corruption  are  characteristic 
features.  He  calls  "the  management  of  municipal  politics  and 
"elections  a  degrading  business  by  which  a  class  of  useless  and 
"vicious  politicians  prosper,"  and  speaks  of  the  system  as  dis- 
creditable and  scandalous.  "It  is  not,"  he  says  (p.  22),  "the 
"gifted,  the  noble  or  the  honored  men  who  generally  hold  the 
"highest  municipal  offices,  but  scheming  politicians,  selfish, 
"adroit  party  managers,  or  men  of  very  moderate  capacity  and 
"even  of  not  very  enviable  reputation,  who  would  not  be  desired 
"at  the  head  of  a  large  private  business."  In  December,  1890, 
in  an  article  in  the  Forum  Mr.  White  wrote  that  he  had  so- 
journed in  every  one  of  the  great  European  municipalities; 
and  that  in  every  respect  for  which  a  city  exists  they  were  all 
superior  to  our  own  except  Constantinople,  where  Turkish 
despotism  produced  the  same  haphazard,  careless,  dirty,  cor- 
rupt system  which  we  in  America  know  so  well  as  the  result 
of  mob  despotism.  We  quote:  "Without  the  slightest  exagger- 
"ation  we  may  asert  that,  with  very  few  exceptions,  the  city 
"governments  of  the  United  States  are  the  worst  in  Christen- 
dom —  the  most  expensive,  the  most  inefficient,  and  the  most 
"corrupt."  Bryce,  writing  in  1894,  found  political  rings  in 
existence  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  St.  Louis,  Cincinnati, 
San  Francisco,  Baltimore  and  New  Orleans.  He  might  easily 
have  found  similar,  though  smaller  and  less  conspicuous  con- 
trivances in  a  thousand  other  cities,  towns  and  villages  in  the 
United  States.  Writing  about  1898,  Professor  Hyslop  recites 
a  statement  of  some  of  the  various  well  known  forms  of  munici- 
pal robbery  prevalent  in  our  city  administrations: 


THE  PLUNDER  OF   THE   CITIES 

"Sales  of  monopolies  in  the  use  of  public  thoroughfares;  sys- 
tematic jobbing  of  contracts;  enormous  abuses  of  patronage;  enor- 
mous overcharges  for  necessary  public  works.  Cities  have  been 
compelled  to  buy  land  for  parks  and  places  because  the  owners 
wished  to  sell  them;  to  grade,  pave  and  sewer  streets  without  in- 
habitants in  order  to  award  corrupt  contracts  for  the  works;  to 
purchase  worthless  properties  at  extravagant  prices;  to  abolish  one 
office  and  create  another  with  the  same  duties,  or  to  vary  the  func- 
tions of  offices  for  the  sole  purpose  of  redistributing  official  emolu- 
ments ;  to  make  or  keep  the  salary  of  an  office  unduly  high  in  order 
that  its  tenant  may  pay  largely  to  the  party  funds';  to  lengthen  the 
term  of  office  in  order  to  secure  the  tenure  of  corrupt  or  incompe- 
tent men.  When  increasing  taxation  begins  to  arouse  resistance, 
loans  are  launched  under  false  pretences  anol  often  with  the  assist- 
ance of  falsified  accounts.  In  all  the  chief  towns  municipal  debts 
have  risen  to  colossal  dimensions  and  increased  with  portentous 
rapidity."  (Hyslop,  Democracy,  pp.  14,  15.) 

This  from  another  writer: 

"No  candid  man  can  wonder  at  it.  It  is  the  plain,  inevitable 
consequence  of  the  application  of  the  method  of  extreme  democracy 
to  municipal  government.  The  elections  are  by  manhood  suffrage. 
Only  a  small  proportion  of  the  electors  have  any  appreciable  in- 
terest in  moderate  taxation  and  economical  administration,  and  a 
proportion  of  votes,  which  is  usually  quite  sufficient  to  hold  the 
balance  of  power,  is  in  the  hands  of  recent  and  most  ignorant  immi- 
grants. Is  it  possible  to  conceive  of  conditions  more  fitted  to  sub- 
serve the  purposes  of  cunning  and  dishonest  men,  whose  object  is 
personal  gain,  whose  method  is  the  organization  of  the  vicious  and 
ignorant  elements  of  the  community  into  combinations  that  can 
turn  elections,  levy  taxes,  and  appoint  administrators?  The  rings 
are  so  skillfully  constructed  that  they  can  nearly  always  exclude 
from  office  a  citizen  who  is  known  to  be  hostile;  though  a  'good, 
easy  man,  who  will  not  fight,  and  will  make  a  reputable  figure- 
head, may  be  an  excellent  investment/  Sometimes,  no  doubt,  the 
bosses  quarrel  among  themselves,  and  the  cause  of  honest  govern- 
ment may  gain  something  by  the  dispute.  But  in  general,  as  long 
as  government  is  not  absolutely  intolerable,  the  more  industrious 
and  respectable  classes  keep  aloof  from  the  nauseous  atmosphere  of 


198      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

municipal  politics,  and  decline  the  long,  difficult,  doubtful  task  of 
entering  into  conflict  with  the  dominant  rings." 


"The  problem,"  says  Mr.  Sterne,  "is  becoming  a  very  serious  one, 
how,  with  the  growth  of  a  pauper  element,  property  rights  in  cities 
can  be  protected  from  confiscation  at  the  hands  of  the  non-producing 
classes.  That  the  suffrage  is  a  spear  as  well  as  a  shield  is  a  fact 
which  many  writers  on  suffrage  leave  out  of  sight;  that  it  not  only 
protects  the  holder  of  the  vote  from  aggression,  but  also  enables 
him  to  aggress  upon  the  rights  of  others  by  means  of  the  taxing 
power,  is  a  fact  to  which  more  and  more  weight  must  be  given  as 
population  increases  and  the  suffrage  is  extended."  (Lecky,  De- 
mocracy and  Liberty,  Vol.  I,  pp.  99-101.) 

This  from  a  high  and  recent  authority: 

"The  standard  of  integrity  in  City  Councils  is  far  lower  even  than 
in  State  Legislatures.  The  calibre  of  membership  has  so  far  de- 
teriorated that  in  a  large  proportion  of  the  cities  of  the  country 
these  bodies  are  held  in  public  contempt."  (Appleton's  Cyclopedia 
of  American  Government,  1914;  Corruption,  Legislative.) 

In  the  same  work  it  is  stated,  in  the  article  on  "Bribery,"  that 
"The  crime  of  accepting  bribes  has  at  one  time  or  another 
"been  proved  against  members  of  city  councils  in  a  large  pro- 
portion of  American  cities."  This  from  Ida  Tarbell,  the  well- 
known  writer: 

"It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  revelations  of  corruption  in 
our  American  cities,  the  use  of  town  councils,  state  legislatures,  and 
even  of  the  Federal  Government  in  the  interests  of  private  busi- 
ness, have  discredited  the  democratic  system  throughout  the  world." 
(The  Business  of  Being  a  Woman,  p.  79.) 

In  a  report  of  a  commissioner  on  the  Boston  city  charter, 
November  6,  1884,  it  is  stated  that  "the  lack  of  harmony  be- 
tween the  different  departments,  the  frequent  and  notorious 
"charges  of  inefficiency  and  corruption  made  by  members  of  the 
"government  against  each  other,  and  the  alarming  increase  in 
"the  burden  of  taxation  are  matters  within  the  knowledge  of  all 


THE  PLUNDER  OF   THE   CITIES  1 99 

"who  have  taxes  to  pay  or  who  read  the  proceedings  of  the 
"City  Council."  That  report  showed  that  during  the  previous 
thirty  years  the  population  had  increased  190  per  cent;  prop- 
erty valuations  200  per  cent;  expenditures  450  per  cent.  The 
appropriations  were  equal  to  $27.30  per  inhabitant,  those  of 
New  York  $16.76  per  inhabitant.  The  Boston  politicians 
seem  to  have  worked  more  stealthily  and  more  successfully 
than  the  Tweed  Ring. 

The  corruption  in  Philadelphia  city  politics  has  been  noto- 
rious for  a  long  time.  The  operations  of  the  infamous  Gas  Ring 
caused  the  debt  of  the  city,  which  stood  at  $20,000,000  in 
1860,  to  reach  $70,000,000  in  1881.  "Taxation  rose  in  pro- 
portion, till  in  1 88 1  it  amounted  to  between  one-fourth  and 
"one-third  of  the  net  income  from  the  property  on  which  it  was 
"assessed,  although  that  property  was  rated  at  nearly  its  full 
"value.  Yet  withal,  the  city  was  badly  paved,  badly  cleansed, 
"badly  supplied  with  gas  (for  which  a  high  price  was  charged) 
"and  with  water."  (American  Commonwealth,  Vol.  II,  p.  410.) 
In  a  memorandum  presented  to  the  Pennsylvania  legislature  in 
1883  by  a  number  of  the  leading  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  they 
stated  that  the  city's  affairs  were  in  a  most  deplorable  condi- 
tion. It  is  there  stated  to  be  the  worst  paved  and  worst  cleaned 
city  in  the  civilized  world;  sewage  so  bad  as  to  endanger 
health;  public  buildings  badly  constructed  and  then  allowed 
to  decay;  slovenly  management  and  high  taxation.  The  Gas 
Ring  system  was  that  already  described.  The  political  boss 
originally  gained  a  following  of  the  floating  and  controllable 
voters,  by  which  means  he  got  in  addition  political  control  of 
the  city's  gas  workmen,  and  through  them  of  the  primaries, 
and  thus  complete  power  over  city  affairs.  Elections  were 
controlled  by  repeating,  personations,  violence,  ballot  box 
tampering  and  other  frauds.  It  was  not  until  1887  that  the 
final  defeat  of  this  ring  was  obtained,  after  tremendous  efforts. 
In  that  year  the  loose  city  charter  of  1854  was  replaced  by 
the  tight-string  Bullitt  charter,  and  the  old  gas  ring  was  suc- 
ceeded by  a  new  combination  of  rascals.  Under  this  regime 


200      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

the  city  has  been  governed  by  oligarchies  of  city  contractors. 
One  of  the  sources  of  corruption  and  scandal  has  been  the 
garbage  and  street  cleaning  contracts.  There  have  been  scan- 
dalous dealings  with  street  franchises.  The  elections  have 
been  fraudulently  conducted.  Citizens  have  regarded  it  as 
hopeless  to  vote;  out  of  416,860  qualified  citizens  in  the  spring 
of  1919  only  241,090  registered  as  voters.  Probably  only  one- 
half  of  the  voters  actually  went  to  the  polls,  and  those  who 
voted  were  presumably  the  most  unfit.  Why  should  an  intelli- 
gent man  trouble  himself  to  go  through  such  an  empty  form 
as  that  of  voting  a  mere  protest  against  an  overpowering  gang 
of  organized  freebooters?  In  1918  the  levying  of  political 
assessments  on  city  employees  was  still  in  force  in  Philadelphia, 
and  collections  were  made  from  ninety-four  per  cent  of  the  city 
employees;  the  total  being  $250,000  to  $500,000  per  year  to 
the  Republican  party  alone.  A  new  city  charter  has  now 
(1919)  been  enacted  and  great  reforms  are  promised,  but 
charter  tinkering  will  never  cure  the  evils  created  by  a  politi- 
cally rotten  constituency.  Judging  the  future  by  the  past, 
there  will  soon  be  a  new  Philadelphia  plunder  machine  which 
will  function  till  about  1950  when  there  will  be  a  new  revolu- 
tion and  a  new  ring,  and  so  on. 

Bryce  states  that  similar  complaints  to  those  made  by 
the  Philadelphians  were  constantly  made  by  the  citizens  of 
the  other  principal  cities  of  the  United  States. 

He  gives  a  table  of  the  increase  of  population,  valuation, 
taxation  and  debt  in  fifteen  of  the  largest  cities  of  the  United 
States  from  1860  to  1875,  as  follows: 

Increase  in  population 70.5  per  cent. 

Increase  in  taxable  valuation I5^-9   "       " 

Increase  in  debt 270.9    " 

Increase  in  taxation 363.2    "        " 

Bryce  described  city  government  in  California  in  1877  as 
very  bad  and  continuing  bad  up  to  his  present  writing  (1894). 
He  says:  "The  municipal  government  of  San  Francisco  was 


THE   PLUNDER   OF    THE    CITIES  2OI 

"far  from  pure.  The  officials  enriched  themselves,  while  the 
"paving,  the  draining,  the  lighting,  were  scandalously  neg- 
lected; corruption  and  political  jobbery  had  found  their  way 
"even  into  school  management,  and  liquor  was  sold  everywhere, 
"the  publicans  being  leagued  with  the  heads  of  the  police  to 
"prevent  the  enforcement  of  the  laws." 

And  again: 

"San  Francisco  in  particular  continues  to  be  deplorably  misgov- 
erned, and  passed  from  the  tyranny  of  one  Ring  to  that  of  another, 
with  no  change  save  in  the  persons  of  those  who  prey  upon  her." 
(American  Commonwealth,  Vol.  II,  p.  446.) 

It  is  well  known  that  the  great  loss  of  life  and  property  in 
San  Francisco  following  the  earthquake  shock  of  1906  was 
chargeable  to  civic  misgovernment.  The  damage  done  by  the 
earthquake  itself  was  comparatively  light,  but  the  city  aque- 
duct had  been  so  badly  built  that  it  was  shaken  down  and  the 
city  was  left  without  water,  so  that  it  was  impossible  to  put 
out  the  numerous  fires  resulting  from  the  earthquake  shock, 
which,  small  in  their  beginnings,  were  allowed  to  ravage  the 
city. 

The  evidence  as  to  smaller  cities  is  similar.  "In  Minneapolis, 
"for  instance,"  says  Steffens,  "the  people  who  were  left  to 
"govern  the  city  hated  above  all  things  strict  laws.  They  were 
"the  saloon  keepers,  gamblers,  criminals  and  the  shiftless  poor 
"of  all  nationalities."  (Shame  of  Cities,  p.  65.) 

The  failure  of  manhood  suffrage  is  also  well  illustrated  by 
the  history  of  the  City  of  New  York,  where  there  is  a  large 
class  of  unpropertied  voters  and  of  which  J.  B.  Miller,  writing 
in  1887,  said  that  the  interests  of  the  City  were  represented 
almost  exclusively  by  liquor  dealers  both  in  the  municipal  and 
the  state  legislatures.  In  1840  the  New  York  City  debt  was 
$10,000,000,  about  $33  per  capita.  In  1870  it  was  $73,000,000, 
about  $90  per  capita.  In  1918  (for  the  new  and  larger  city) 
it  was  $1,335,000,000,  about  $242  per  capita.  In  1816  the 
New  York  tax  levy  was  $344,802,  being  less  than  half  of  one 


202      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES 

per  cent  of  the  taxable  property.  In  1918  the  tax  levy  was 
$198,232,811,  being  2.30  per  cent  of  the  taxable  property.  In 
1898  the  New  York  City  budget  was  $70,000,000;  by  1909 
it  amounted  to  $156,000,000.  The  increase  in  population 
was  only  39.4  per  cent  in  that  time,  while  the  city's  expenses 
increased  123  per  cent. 

Further  evidence  may  be  found  in  the  report  of  a  Commis- 
sion appointed  by  Governor  Tilden  of  New  York  in  1875,  to 
consider  the  evils  of  the  municipal  government  of  New  York 
City  and  the  necessity  of  adopting  a  new  and  permanent  plan 
for  city  government.  Tilden  was  a  man  of  recognized  ability. 
He  appointed  a  commission  of  ten  New  Yorkers,  including 
judges,  lawyers  and  publicists,  men  past  middle  age  and  of  the 
highest  integrity,  business  experience  and  reputation.  The 
chairman  was  William  M.  Evarts,  a  distinguished  statesman, 
leader  of  the  New  York  Bar,  who  at  times  held  the  offices  of 
Attorney  General  and  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States. 
Their  report,  which  was  carefully  prepared  and  unanimous,  de- 
scribed the  steady  deterioration  in  the  government  of  the  city 
of  New  York  which  had  then  been  progressing  for  a  generation 
past,  and  which  they  had  seen  in  progress  with  their  own 
eyes  for  that  period  of  time.  The  following  extracts  from 
the  report  are  pertinent: 

"In  1850,  we  reach  a  period  when,  as  the  annals  of  the  metropolis 
at  that  time  and  the  recollections  of  those  yet  living,  who  were  then 
familiar  with  its  affairs  will  attest,  a  marked  decline  had  occurred, 
through  a  great  deterioration  in  the  standing  and  character  of  the 
city  officers,  bringing  with  it  waste,  extravagance  and  corruption." 

The  report  refers  to  the  period  from  1850  to  1860.    It  says: 

"Observers  of  the  local  government  and  politics  of  the  metropolis 
during  this  period  will  remember  that  it  was  the  time  when  the  local 
managers  first  organized  on  a  large  scale  their  schemes  to  control, 
through  compact  political  arrangements,  the  management  and  dis- 
tribution of  the  revenues  of  the  city,  which  then  amounted  to  so  large 
a  sum,  and  it  may  be  said  that  from  that  time  to  the  present,  with 


THE  PLUNDER  OF   THE   CITIES  203 

the  exception  of  one  short  but  memorable  period,  the  disposition  of 
these  revenues  has  remained  substantially  in  the  hands  of  the  chiefs 
of  trained  political  organizations,  which  are  mainly  supported,  in 
some  form  or  other,  from  this  fund." 

Again: 

"In  truth,  the  public  debt  of  the  city  of  New  York,  or  the  larger 
part  of  it,  represents  a  vast  aggregate  of  moneys  wasted,  embezzled 
or  misapplied." 

This  waste  and  theft  of  public  money  the  report  refers  to 
had  its  direct  cause  in  the  incapacity  and  rascality  of  public 
officials  all  or  most  of  whom  as  we  know  were  chosen  either 
directly  or  indirectly  by  manhood  suffrage.  The  report  further 
says  on  this  point: 

"We  place  at  the  head  of  the  list  of  evils  under  which  our  muni- 
cipal administration  labors,  the  fact  that  so  large  a  number  of  im- 
portant offices  have  come  to  be  filled  by  men  possessing  little,  if 
any,  fitness  for  the  important  duties  they  are  called  upon  to  dis- 
charge. .  .  .  There  is  a  general  failure,  especially  in  the  larger 
cities,  to  secure  the  election  or  appointment  of  fit  and  competent 
officials.  .  .  .  Animated  by  the  expectation  of  unlawful  emolu- 
ments they  expend  large  sums  to  secure  their  places  and  make 
promises  beforehand  to  supporters  and  retainers  to  furnish  patron- 
age or  place." 

Also: 

"It  would  be  clearly  within  bounds  to  say  that  more  than  one- 
half  of  all  the  present  city  debts  are  the  direct  results  of  the  species 
of  intentional  and  corrupt  misrule  above  described." 

Further: 

"We  do  not  believe  that,  had  the  cities  of  this  State  during  the 
last  twenty-five  years  had  the  benefit  of  the  presence  in  the  various 
departments  of  local  administration  of  the  services  of  competent 
and  faithful  officers,  the  aggregate  of  municipal  debts  would  have 
amounted  to  one-third  of  the  present  sum,  nor  the  annual  taxa- 
tion one-half  of  its  present  amount:  while  the  condition  of  those 


2O4      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

cities  in  respect  to  existing  provisions  for  the  public  needs  would 
have  been  far  superior  to  what  is  now  exhibited." 

The  New  York  City  tax  levy  for  1877,  the  year  of  the 
report,  was  $28,400,000,  one-half  of  which  was  caused  by  offi- 
cial robbery.  Therefore,  according  to  the  report  of  these  able 
and  experienced  citizens  made  after  an  examination  of  the 
city's  finances,  the  city  had  been  robbed  of  a  sum  which 
represented  fourteen  millions  a  year,  and  which  capitalized 
at  five  per  cent  amounts  to  $280,000,000,  a  fair  estimate  of 
the  amount  of  politicians'  loot  up  to  that  time.  In  other  words, 
every  family  in  New  York  had  on  an  average,  been  plundered 
to  the  tune  of  $1400  by  state  and  city  politicians.  If  this 
$280,000,000  was  not  loot  what  was  it?  And  if  not  chargeable 
to  manhood  suffrage  to  what  is  it  chargeable? 

The  committee  showed  its  opinion  of  the  cause  by  its  choice 
of  the  remedy.  It  recommended  the  creation  of  a  Board  of 
Finance  to  control  municipal  expenditures,  and  to  be  elected 
by  tax  and  rent  payers  only.  This  expedient,  so  objectionable 
to  greedy  and  grafting  politicians,  was  never  adopted  or  even, 
offered  to  the  people  for  adoption.  The  report  fell  flat  in  a 
legislature  elected  by  the  controllable  vote,  and  of  course 
thoroughly  corrupt  and  unpatriotic. 

Looking  back  still  further  and  for  the  benefit  of  those  who 
would  like  additional  evidence  upon  the  political  degeneracy 
of  New  York  City,  a  few  facts  will  be  given  taken  from  Myers' 
History  of  Tammany  Hall  and  by  him  taken  mostly  from  pub- 
lic documents,  commencing  about  1826  shortly  after  "the  great 
"advance"  which  the  twaddling  sentimentalist  writers  tell  us 
was  made  by  the  introduction  of  manhood  suffrage. 

In  the  November  election  of  1827  was  the  greatest  exhibi- 
tion of  fraud  and  violence  ever  seen  in  the  city.  "Now," 
(says  Myers)  "were  observable  the  effects  brought  forth  by  the 
"suffrage  changes  of  1822  and  1826."  Repeating  flourished 
and  honest  voters  were  beaten  and  arrested  for  trying  to  vote. 
Next  year,  in  1828,  hundreds,  if  not  thousands,  of  illegal 
votes  were  counted,  including  those  of  boys  of  nineteen  and 


THE   PLUNDER   OF    THE    CITIES  2 05 

twenty  years  of  age.  This  practice  was  continued  in  the  en- 
suing decade.  It  was  then  just  one  year  after  the  complete  tri- 
umph of  manhood  suffrage  in  New  York  State  that  money 
was  first  used  to  influence  voting  in  New  York  City  elections. 
The  city  was  carried  in  1828  by  Tammany  Hall  for  Andrew 
Jackson.  Four  years  later  in  1832,  and  subsequent  years,  the 
price  of  votes  in  New  York  City  was  stated  at  $5.00  each. 
Paupers  from  the  almshouse  and  convicts  were  voted  at  the 
polls.  In  1838  Swartwout,  a  Jackson  collector  of  the  port, 
and  an  unsavory  politician,  became  a  defaulter  for  $1,200,000, 
an  enormous  sum  for  that  time,  and  Price,  the  United  States 
district  attorney,  defaulted  for  $75,000.  Civic  frauds  were  fre- 
quent and  increasing.  An  aldermanic  committee  in  1842  re- 
ported that  dishonest  office  holders  had  recently  robbed  the  city 
of  near  $100,000,  equivalent  to  a  theft  of  $2,000,000  from  New 
York  City  in  our  time.  The  wholesale  naturalization  mill  was 
put  in  operation,  turning  out  several  thousand  new  voters  a 
year.  From  1841  to  1844  the  total  vote  of  the  city  was  thus 
increased  about  twenty-five  per  cent  in  newly  naturalized  for- 
eigners alone;  most  of  them  probably  without  interest  in  the 
country  or  real  understanding  of  its  institutions  and  history. 
At  the  election  of  1844  it  was  estimated  that  twenty  per  cent 
of  the  votes  were  fraudulent.  The  primaries  were  organized 
by  violence  and  reeked  with  fraud.  The  character  of  many 
of  the  noted  city  politicians  was  notoriously  bad,  including 
professional  gamblers,  pugilists  and  even  thieves.  About  this 
time  the  city  political  gangs  began  to  appear.  The  ward 
heelers  with  a  following  of  repeaters  were  a  new  power  in  poli- 
tics. In  one  period  of  ten  months,  1839-1840,  there  were 
nineteen  riots  and  twenty  murders  in  a  city  of  only  300,000 
population.  Mike  Walsh's  was  the  principal  gang.  The 
gangs  increased  in  number  till  in  1856  the  Bowery  Boys  and 
Dead  Rabbits  had  a  pitched  street  battle  in  Jackson  Street, 
where  ten  were  killed  and  eighty  wounded. 

The  sale  of  nominations  to  office  first  became  notorious  in 
1846.    Prices  ranged  from  $1,000  to  $20,000.    This  circum- 


206      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

stance  alone  is  almost  convincing  proof  of  universal  corruption 
in  public  affairs  since  no  one  buys  an  office  unless  with  the 
knowledge  that  money  is  to  be  made  corruptly  in  its  adminis- 
tration; and  this  is  usually  impossible  or  too  dangerous  to  be 
undertaken  unless  the  general  administration  is  so  corrupt  as 
to  be  tolerant  of  fraud,  bribery  and  extortion.  The  common 
council  was  notoriously  for  sale;  it  was  believed  that  every 
city  department  was  corrupt.  In  1851  the  Williamsburg 
Ferry  scandal  broke  out  and  it  was  shown  that  $20,000  in 
bribes  had  been  paid  to  New  York  City  aldermen.  The 
"Forty  Thieves"  was  the  name  given  to  the  New  York  City 
aldermen  of  1852,  to  whom  one  Jacob  Sharp  first  applied  for  a 
franchise  to  build  a  street  railway  on  Broadway,  New  York. 
An  injunction  was  obtained;  but  they  passed  the  franchise  in 
defiance  of  the  injunction.  Of  the  aldermen  who  thus  voted, 
one  was  imprisoned  for  a  fortnight  and  the  others  fined.  A 
similar  affair  was  the  sale  of  the  New  York  Third  Avenue 
Street  Railroad  Franchise  by  the  same  board  of  aldermen; 
over  $30,000  was  said  to  have  been  paid  in  bribes  for  this 
franchise,  a  great  sum  for  those  days. 

Occasionally  when  a  quarrel  broke  out  over  the  distribution 
of  the  spoils  the  most  appalling  disclosures  were  made;  such 
as  those  on  an  investigation  by  the  Grand  Jury  in  1853,  when 
it  appeared  that  the  aldermen  demanded  a  share  in  every 
city  contract.  On  February  26th,  1853,  the  grand  jury  of 
New  York  County  handed  down  a  presentment  with  testi- 
mony to  the  effect  that  enormous  sums  of  money  had  been 
expended  for  the  procurement  of  street  railroad  franchises  in 
New  York  City.  It  was  ascertained  that  $50,000  had  been 
paid  in  1851  for  the  Eighth  and  Ninth  Avenue  Railroad  fran- 
chises; that  in  1852  $30,000  was  paid  in  bribes  for  the  Third 
Avenue  Railroad  franchise;  that  money  was  paid  for  alder- 
manic  votes  on  franchises  of  the  Catharine  Street,  Greenpoint, 
Williamsburg,  Grand  Street  and  Wall  Street  ferries.  Numer- 
ous other  instances  were  given  of  bribery  of  members  of  the 
common  council  in  connection  with  sale  of  city  property  and 


THE   PLUNDER   OF   THE   CITIES  207 

other  contracts.  Evidence  as  to  police  corruption  was  plenti- 
ful. The  chief  of  police  had  received  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
three  conveyances  of  property  in  one  year.  (Board  of  Alder- 
men Documents,  Vol.  XXI,  part  2,  No.  55,  pp.  1333-35  an(i 
p.  1573;  Myers'  History  of  Tammany  Hall,  167. 

Out  of  sixty  thousand  votes  polled  in  1854,  ten  thousand 
were  for  sale.  "In  the  city  at  this  time  were  about  ten  thou- 
"sand  shiftless,  unprincipled  persons  who  lived  by  their  wits 
"and  the  labor  of  others.  The  trade  of  a  part  of  these  was 
"turning  primary  elections,  packing  nominatkig  conventions, 
"repeating  and  breaking  up  meetings."  In  1856  Josiah  Quincy 
saw  $25.00  paid  for  a  single  vote  for  a  member  of  Congress. 
The  day  "was  enlivened  with  assaults,  riots  and  stabbings." 

The  frauds  and  scandals  in  city  affairs  continued  and  grew 
from  1854  to  1860;  it  was  impossible  to  learn  from  the  city's 
books  how  much  was  being  plundered.  In  three  years  the 
taxes  nearly  doubled.  From  1850  to  1860  the  expenses  of  the 
city  government  increased  from  $3,200,000  to  $9,758,000. 

Politics  in  the  old  Sixth  Ward  of  New  York  is  briefly 
sketched  by  Frank  Moss,  at  one  time  Police  Commissioner,  in 
his  interesting  work,  The  American  Metropolis.  No  doubt 
civilization  existed  in  that  district  from  1845  to  1865,  tne 
period  referred  to  by  Moss;  there  were  churches  and  schools, 
family  and  business  life  as  elsewhere.  It  was  originally  a 
fairly  respectable  neighborhood,  but  thanks  to  manhood  suf- 
frage, the  political  life  of  the  community  was  thoroughly  sav- 
age and  its  representatives  savages,  and  it  and  they  did  much 
to  degrade  the  whole  ward.  First  we  find  "that  hard-faced, 
"heavy-handed  old  rapscallion  Isaiah  Rynders  was  the  con- 
trolling spirit.  There  was  nothing  that  Rynders  could  not  or 
"would  not  do,  and  there  are  many  dark  stories  of  his  conduct 
"during  the  draft  riots  of  1863."  He  was  the  Boss  of  the  dis- 
trict, his  assistants  were  ruffians,  his  leaders  and  backers  were 
office-holding  politicians  with  the  "Hon."  prefix  to  their  no- 
torious names.  He  was  succeeded  by  Con  Donoho,  the  head 
of  the  street  cleaning  department,  whose  gang  finally 


208      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

trounced  the  Rynders  gang  into  submission  and  who  became 
thereafter  "on  close  terms  with  the  strongest  political  men  of 
the  city."  Moss  finds  thirty  years  later  a  similar  alliance  be- 
tween crime  and  politics  in  the  Eighth  Ward  of  New  York, 
among  whose  political  rulers  are,  he  says  "pimps,  gamblers, 
"thugs,  fighters  and  dive  keepers." 

In  1860  the  mayor  was  accused  of  selling  appointments  to 
offices.  The  Grand  Jury  in  a  presentment  charged  him  with 
robbing  the  tax  payers  of  $420,000.  The  New  York  Tribune 
in  June  1860  publicly  charged  the  municipal  authorities  with 
theft  of  public  funds.  Other  newspaper  criticism  was  silenced 
by  orders  for  public  advertising.  The  money  voted  for  street 
cleaning  was  squandered,  and  the  streets  were  so  filthy  that  the 
death  rate  in  1863  was  thirty-three  per  thousand.  In  a  court 
proceeding  in  1867  it  incidentally  transpired  that  $50,000  had 
been  paid  the  common  council  for  one  gas  franchise. 

In  1857  the  notorious  William  M.  Tweed  came  into  promi- 
nence and  acquired  political  power  which  he  retained  for 
fourteen  years,  during  which  time  he  and  his  followers  were 
steadily  at  work  looting  the  city  and  squandering  and  amass- 
ing fortunes.  The  history  of  the  Tweed  regime  of  plunder  in 
New  York  City  is  well  known.  In  1867  he  was  at  the  height 
of  his  power.  Prior  to  that  date  all  public  contractors  in  New 
York  City  had  been  required  to  add  ten  per  cent  to  their  bills 
and  pay  over  that  percentage  to  certain  politicians.  In  1867 
this  percentage  was  increased  to  thirty-five  per  cent  of  which 
twenty-five  per  cent  went  to  Tweed.  The  County  Clerk's  and 
Register's  office  brought  in  $40,000  to  $80,000  a  year  each;  the 
Sheriff's  office  $150,000  a  year.  A  part  of  this  income  was  of 
course  available  for  election  purposes.  Tweed  and  all  his 
associates  became  rich  notwithstanding  that  they  lavished 
millions  in  the  purchase  of  voters  and  public  officials.  Out 
of  his  stolen  millions  Tweed  in  the  winter  of  1871  gave 
$50,000  to  the  poor  of  his  own  ward  and  perhaps  as  much 
more  throughout  the  city.  This  made  him  popular  with  the 
thriftless  or  pauper  classes.  Many  of  his  transactions  were  in 


THE   PLUNDER  OF   THE   CITIES 

the  nature  of  purchases  of  the  state  legislature  at  Albany.  He 
influenced  the  press  by  means  of  advertising  contracts, 
presents  to  reporters,  etc.  One  newspaper  got  a  profit  of 
nearly  $200,000  on  a  printing  contract;  another  got  $80,000 
a  year  for  advertising;  presents  to  newspaper  men  ranged  from 
$200  to  $2500  a  year.  In  1871  the  New  York  Sun  proposed 
to  erect  a  statue  to  the  great  man.  At  his  daughter's  wedding 
the  gifts  were  worth  $100,000.  From  $36,000,000  in  1868 
the  city  debt  rose  to  $136,000,000  in  1871.  The  new  county 
court  house  cost  the  city  $12,000,000,  of  which  $9,000,000 
was  undoubtedly  stolen;  repairs  on  armories  the  value  of 
which  was  $250,000  were  charged  at  $3,000,000  and  so  on. 
The  total  thefts  of  the  Tweed  ring  amounted  to  somewhere 
between  $100,000,000  and  $200,000,000;  the  precise  figure 
has  never  been  ascertained.  Had  Tweed  been  less  greedy,  had 
his  gang  taken  $25,000,000  instead  of  six  times  that  sum  they 
might  have  escaped.  They  went  too  far  and  the  Tweed  ring 
was  overthrown  in  1871  by  a  powerful  citizens'  movement. 

The  reader  may  wonder  what  the  decent  people  of  New 
York  were  thinking,  saying  and  doing  all  these  years  while 
these  operations  of  the  managers  of  the  controllable  vote  were 
in  progress.  Just  exactly  what  they  are  now  thinking,  saying 
and  doing  all  over  the  country;  — complaining  and  deploring 
that  it  can  not  be  helped.  Sometimes  on  the  heels  of  some 
unusually  scandalous  disclosure  a  reform  movement  would  be 
started,  aided  perhaps  by  young  men  intensely  patriotic,  fresh 
from  school  and  college  where  they  had  read  about  our  fine 
political  structure  in  books  that  fail  to  refer  to  the  rotten  foun- 
dation. They  learned  by  sad  experience  as  others  before  them 
that  the  stream  will  rise  no  higher  than  its  source;  that  with 
a  controllable  electorate  kindly  provided  by  the  manhood  suf- 
frage constitution  and  an  organization  of  scallawags,  loafers 
and  criminals  to  control  it  the  politicians  had  the  best  of  the 
situation.  Bryce,  who  was  in  New  York  in  1870  and  saw  the 
Tweed  Ring  in  its  glory,  gives  us  a  fine  picture  of  the  effect 
of  manhood  suffrage  in  prostrating  public  conscience  and 


2IO      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES 

energy.  He  says  that  the  respectable  democratic  leaders 
winked  at  the  Ring's  misdeeds  for  the  sake  of  the  vote;  that 
the  press  had  been  purchased  or  subsidized;  that  the  bench 
was  controlled;  that  three-quarters  of  the  citizens  "paid  little 
"or  nothing  in  the  way  of  direct  taxes,  and  did  not  realize  that 
"the  increase  of  civic  burdens  would  fall  upon  them  as  well  as 
"upon  the  rich."  Here  you  have  the  case  as  plain  as  day;  the 
electorate,  whose  business  and  function  it  was  to  secure 
good  government  and  prevent  these  evils,  failed  in  its 
duty;  it  was  itself  corrupt  and  inefficient;  and  why? 
Because  three-quarters  of  it  paid  little  or  no  direct  taxes. 
In  other  words,  they  were  not  property  holders.  Just  as 
the  human  soul  is  undiscoverable  except  as  revealed  by  the 
human  body,  so  civilization  exhibits  itself  in  property; 
and  the  rabble  who  are  unfamiliar  with  property  and 
are  devoid  of  sympathy  with  its  rights,  feel  no  interest 
in  good  government  or  in  any  other  incident  of  civilization. 
Bryce  further  says: 

"Moreover,  the  Ring  had  cunningly  placed  on  the  pay  rolls  of 
the  city  a  large  number  of  persons  rendering  comparatively  little 
service,  who  had  become  a  body  of  janizaries,  bound  to  defend  the 
government  which  paid  them,  working  hard  for  it  at  elections,  and 
adding,  together  with  the  regular  employees,  no  contemptible  quota 
to  the  total  Tammany  vote.  As  for  the  Boss,  those  very  qualities 
in  him  which  repelled  men  of  refinement  made  him  popular  with  the 
crowd."  (American  Commonwealth,  Vol.  II,  p.  391.) 

Notwithstanding  the  Tweed  disclosures  there  was  no  serious 
attempt  to  apply  the  only  practical  remedy  by  reforming  the 
electorate.  Here  and  there  a  voice  was  heard  crying  in  the 
wilderness,  but  no  one  regarded  it.  In  October  1876,  a  writer 
in  the  North  American  Review  was  clear-eyed  enough  to  read 
the  lesson  of  the  Tweed  Ring.  He  wrote: 

"A  very  few  unscrupulous  men,  realizing  thoroughly  the  changed 
condition  of  affairs,  had  organized  the  proletariat  of  the  City;  and 
through  the  form  of  suffrage  had  taken  possession  of  its  government. 


THE  PLUNDER  OF   THE   CITIES  211 

They  saw  clearly  the  facts  of  the  case,  which  the  doctrinaires, 
theorists  and  patriots  studiously  ignored  or  vehemently  denied." 

And  as  a  remedy  he  proposed  "A  recurrence  to  the  ancient 
"ways;  a  strong  executive,  a  non-political  judiciary,"  and  that 
"property  must  be  entitled  to  representation  as  well  as  persons." 

Of  course,  the  article  had  no  perceptible  effect. 

Once  more  the  impossible  task  of  creating  a  good  govern- 
ment by  means  of  the  votes  of  a  purchasable  constituency  was 
attempted.  Such  of  the  ablest  men  of  the  city  as  were  willing 
to  dip  into  the  mire  of  manhood  suffrage  politics  devoted  them- 
selves to  the  task  but  in  vain.  The  hopelessness  of  the  under- 
taking ought  to  have  been  apparent  from  such  facts  as  this, 
that  Tweed's  own  district  re-elected  him  senator  by  a  large 
majority  in  November  1871  after  he  had  been  thoroughly  ex- 
posed and  while  he  was  being  prosecuted  for  his  crimes.  The 
so-called  reformers  who  supplanted  the  Tweed  clique  in  public 
office  were  only  political  adventurers  of  a  different  type;  more 
scrupulous,  refined  or  timid  than  their  predecessors,  but  poli- 
ticians after  all,  since  none  other  could  be  induced  to  enter 
the  political  arena.  The  coarse  robberies  of  Tweed's  time 
were  discontinued,  but  the  government  of  New  York  City  by 
a  political  clique  organized  on  the  basis  of  the  use  of  the  city 
spoils  to  secure  the  controllable  vote  was  continued.  It  was 
only  for  a  few  months  that  the  tempest  cleared  the  air.  The 
good  citizens  soon  forgot  their  sudden  zeal,  or  became  dis- 
couraged at  the  odds  against  them  in  a  manhood  suffrage 
community.  Neglecting  the  primaries  where  they  had  ob- 
tained but  slim  results  they  allowed  nominations  to  fall  back 
into  the  hands  of  spoilsmen,  and  the  most  important  city 
offices  to  be  fought  for  by  factions  differing  only  in  their  name 
and  party  badges,  because  all  were  clearly  bent  upon  selfish 
gain.  Roosevelt,  writing' in  1886,  tells  something  of  the  po- 
litical conditions  of  this  reformed  "after-Tweed"  period: 

"In  the  lower  wards  (of  New  York  City),  where  there  is  a  large 
vicious  population,  the  condition  of  politics  is  often  fairly  appalling, 


212      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

and  the  (local)  boss  is  generally  a  man  of  grossly  immoral  public 
and  private  character.  In  these  wards  many  of  the  social  organiza- 
tions with  which  the  leaders  are  obliged  to  keep  on  good  terms  are 
composed  of  criminals  or  of  the  relatives  and  associates  of  criminals. 
.  .  .  The  president  of  a  powerful  semi-political  association  was  by 
profession  a  burglar;  the  man  who  received  the  goods  he  stole  was 
an  alderman.  Another  alderman  was  elected  while  his  hair  was  still 
short  from  a  term  in  the  State  prison.  A  school  trustee  had  been 
convicted  of  embezzlement  and  was  the  associate  of  criminals." 
(Century  Magazine  for  November,  1866.) 

Ostrogorski  thus  describes  the  period  following  Tweed's 
overthrow: 

"The  principal  instrument  of  this  plunder  was  the  police;  they 
levied  a  regular  toll  prescribed  by  a  fixed  tariff  on  all  the  saloons, 
houses  of  ill  fame,  and  gambling  hells;  extorted  money  on  false 
pretenses  or  on  no  pretenses  at  all  from  small  traders  whom  they 
had  the  power  of  molesting.  Other  perfectly  lawful  businesses  were 
subjected  to  a  tribute;  steamboat  companies,  insurance  societies, 
banks,  etc.,  paid  blackmail  in  return  for  the  protection  accorded 
to  them.  The  police  captains  and  even  the  policemen  had  to  buy 
their  places.  The  government  of  the  city  in  fact  became  a  huge 
market  in  which  the  officers  might  as  well  have  sat  at  little  tables 
and  sold  their  wares  openly."  (P.  81.) 

In  other  words,  the  much  vaunted  reform  uprising  which 
overthrew  Tweed  was  without  radical  or  permanent  results, 
because  it  left  the  city  still  at  the  mercy  of  the  controllable 
vote. 

A  few  later  incidents  may  be  added  to  Mr.  Myers'  interest- 
ing collection.  In  1874  one  McKenna  was  shot  dead  in  an  elec- 
tion fight  in  New  York  and  Richard  Croker  was  accused  of  the 
crime  and  tried ;  the  jury  disagreed.  Croker  afterwards  became 
Tweed's  successor  and  political  boss  of  New  York,  retiring 
about  1899  to  his  native  Ireland,  with  millions  made  out  of 
politics.  About  this  time  the  Harlem  court  house  was  built. 
The  amount  possible  to  steal  was  small,  but  the  politicians 
displayed  a  spirit  worthy  of  past  days;  for  $66,000  worth  of 


THE   PLUNDER   OF   THE   CITIES  213 

construction  they  collected  from  the  city  $268,000,  or  at  the 
rate  of  four  to  one.  In  1884  twenty-one  members  out  of  twenty- 
three  of  the  Board  of  Aldermen  of  New  York  voted  to  give  the 
franchise  for  a  surface  railway  on  Broadway  to  the  Broadway 
Surface  Railroad  Company.  The  rival  road,  the  Broadway 
Railroad  Company,  tried  to  bribe  the  Aldermen  with  $750,000, 
half  cash  and  half  bonds.  The  Aldermen  feared  the  bonds 
might  be  traced,  and  considered  it  wiser  to  accept  the  $500,000 
cash  offered  by  the  Surface  Company.  Each  alderman  was  to 
receive  $22,000.  Three  aldermen  were  convicted,  six  fled  to 
Canada  and  three  turned  State's  evidence.  Ten  others  were 
indicted  but  never  brought  to  trial.  After  1884  more  scien- 
tific methods  replaced  the  rough  old  ways,  and  New  York 
City  settled  down  to  a  steady  stream  of  boss  and  machine 
rule,  supported  by  small  graft,  blackmail,  voluntary  contribu- 
tions and  assessments  on  office  holders.  During  the  Croker 
regime,  which  commenced  about  this  time,  it  was  understood 
that  men  of  means,  or  corporations  who  wanted  "protection" 
in  their  property  rights  or  in  their  various  transactions,  lawful 
or  otherwise,  were  expected  to  send  their  checks  for  propor- 
tional sums  to  Croker  without  word  or  comment.  For  these 
contributions  he  could  not  be  required  to  account  as  he  held  no 
public  office.  It  was  believed  that  Croker  was  fair  to  his  con- 
tributors and  that  if  trouble  came  they  would  be  looked  after. 
This  surely  was  better  than  paying  blackmail  to  all  sorts  of 
government  officials.  The  machine  therefore  ran  smoother 
than  in  Tweed's  time;  and  probably  the  same  kindness  towards 
political  bosses  is  still  practised  by  business  men  and  corpora- 
tions. There  can  be  no  legal  objection  to  such  methods,  they 
are  safe  in  every  way.  In  1889  the  Fassett  investigating  com- 
mittee appointed  by  the  state  senate  took  about  3500  pages 
of  testimony  in  regard  to  city  affairs  showing  that  blackmail 
was  systematically  levied  on  gambling  houses,  liquor  saloons, 
and  other  places.  In  1892  there  arose  the  "Huckleberry" 
street  railway  franchise  scandal  connected  with  the  grant  of  a 
valuable  franchise  in  the  Bronx,  New  York  City.  In  1894 


214      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

the  Lexow  Committee  made  a  new  state  senate  investigation 
into  New  York  City  politics,  disclosing  fraudulent  voting 
under  police  protection;  sale  of  police  appointments  at  prices 
from  $300  to  $15,000;  blackmail  levied  systematically  on 
liquor  sellers,  gamblers,  swindlers,  and  loose  women.  The 
revenue  from  these  sources  was  estimated  at  $7,000,000  annu- 
ally. This  did  not  include  contributions  from  corporations.  In 
1900  the  so-called  Mazet  Senate  Committee  conducted  a  third 
investigation  which  brought  out  evidence  tending  to  show  that 
the  mayor  (Van  Wyck)  had  been  a  party  to  a  conspiracy 
to  create  a  monopoly  of  ice  in  the  City  of  New  York.  The 
essential  meanness  of  a  scheme  to  fatten  on  the  needs  of  the 
poor  during  the  sultry  months  was  apparent  even  to  the  most 
stupid  voter;  the  mayor  became  unpopular  and  at  the  end  of 
his  term  retired  to  Paris  with  great  wealth  as  it  was  said.  The 
Mazet  committee  unearthed  the  fact  that  the  city  contracts 
went  to  politicians,  not  to  business  men. 

Particulars  of  other  scandals,  such  as  the  Ramapo  Water 
Scheme;  the  system  of  judicial  assessments  for  office,  the  silent 
partnerships  of  political  leaders  in  city  contracts,  and  police  cor- 
ruption must  be  omitted  here  for  want  of  space.  About  1900 
the  New  York,  Westchester  and  Boston  Railroad  Company,  an 
adjunct  of  the  New  York,  New  Haven  and  Hartford  Railroad 
Company,  was  seeking  a  franchise  to  enter  New  York  City; 
it  obtained  it  in  1904  from  the  New  York  municipal  authori- 
ties. Ten  years  afterwards  in  1914  it  was  ascertained  in  an 
investigation  by  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  that  in 
order  to  get  the  franchise  the  Railroad  Company  had  been  re- 
quired to  distribute  $1,500,000  in  cash  to  politicians  and  to 
give  a  $6,000,000  contract  to  a  business  corporation  controlled 
by  politicians.  This  same  corporation  obtained  other  contracts 
from  other  quarters,  about  $15,000,000  in  all,  through  politi- 
cal influence. 

The  foregoing  instances  of  New  York  municipal  scandals 
are  more  than  sufficient  for  the  purposes  of  this  chapter.  For 
an  extended  account  of  some  of  the  evils  and  problems  of 


THE   PLUNDER   OF   THE   CITIES  21$ 

American  municipalities  the  reader  is  referred  to  Eaton  on 
Government  of  Municipalities,  published  in  1899,  and  to 
other  works  herein  referred  to.  But  you  cannot  (says  Steffens) 
put  all  the  known  incidents  of  the  corruption  of  an  Ameri- 
can city  into  a  book;  and  it  is  probable  that  a  mere  sketch 
of  all  the  actual  discovered  and  known  American  municipal 
frauds  and  malpractices  committed  or  culpably  permitted  in 
the  past  eighty  years  would  fill  many  large  volumes.  The 
statements  of  the  writers  hereinbefore  quoted  in  proof  of  the 
deplorable  failure  of  American  municipal  government,  though 
necessarily  general  in  terms  are  sufficient  and  convincing;  and 
the  specific  instances  herein  mentioned  were  given  not 
so  much  to  sustain  this  undisputed  general  testimony  as 
to  illustrate  it;  and  as  a  local  map  or  sketch  may  aid 
a  traveller  to  call  to  mind  the  ground  traversed  in  past  years, 
so  here  to  assist  the  memory  of  the  reader  as  to  the  details  and 
quality  of  frauds  and  rascalities  notorious  in  their  time,  and 
with  the  story  of  which  he  is  or  has  been  more  or  less  familiar. 
Nor  will  the  limits  of  this  volume  permit  an  attempt  to  set 
forth  an  account  however  slight  of  the  various  futile  efforts 
made  from  time  to  time  to  reduce  the  stream  of  municipal 
corruption.  They  have  all  failed  because  they  did  not  reach 
the  source  of  the  flow.  In  some  American  cities  an  attempt 
at  a  qualified  dictatorship  has  been  made;  instead  of  the  elec- 
tion of  all  civic  functionaries,  as  required  by  the  logical  applica- 
tion of  the  manhood  suffrage  doctrine,  the  plan  has  been 
adopted  of  electing  only  a  mayor,  for  four  years,  and  giving  him 
the  unqualified  power  of  appointment  of  all  other  city  officials. 
Instead  of  the  annual  election  of  say  ten  heads  of  bureaus,  or 
departments,  a  year,  making  forty  appeals  to  popular  wisdom, 
we  have  thus  in  four  years  only  one  such  call  for  the  vox 
populi.  This  is  on  its  face  a  complete  admission  of  the  failure 
of  manhood  suffrage;  and  in  reality,  this  one-man  system  has 
always  been  adopted  after  some  disgusting  exposure  of  rotten- 
ness in  city  government  had  demonstrated  that  failure. 
Bryce  furnishes  a  chapter,  written  by  Mayor  Low,  a  reform 


2l6      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

mayor  of  Brooklyn,  advocating  this  sort  of  dictatorship,  which 
was  in  use  during  his  incumbency.  Low  says  that  die  local 
city  legislative  bodies  have  almost  everywhere  abused  their 
powers.  This  fact  is  notorious.  Local  self-government  of 
cities  by  boards  of  aldermen,  or  city  councils,  elected  by  the 
people  under  the  manhood  suffrage  system,  has  been  produc- 
tive of  so  many  grotesque  blunders,  shameful  wastes  and 
robberies,  beside  neglect  and  mismanagement  of  city  affairs, 
that  it  has  been  frequently  thrown  into  the  discard,  and  re- 
placed by  boards,  commissions,  superintendents  and  other 
appointive  officials,  as  proposed  by  Low.  But  according  to  the 
manhood  suffrage  theory  this  is  all  wrong  and  the  municipal 
legislatures  chosen  by  the  people,  boards  of  aldermen,  common 
councils  (it  used  to  be  a  joke  among  the  young  men  to  call 
them  "common  scoundrels")  or  what  not  should  have  power 
to  lay,  collect  and  expend  all  city  taxes.  But  every  one  knows 
that  if  that  were  done,  a  perfect  riot  of  extravagance  and 
plunder  would  forthwith  ensue  followed  by  insolvency,  dis- 
order, and  finally  anarchy.  Take  the  City  of  New  York  for 
instance,  where  the  Board  of  Aldermen,  which  is  the  municipal 
legislature,  is  elected  by  manhood  suffrage,  and  give  that  body 
the  power  of  governing  the  city  which  logically  belongs  to  it 
upon  the  manhood  suffrage  theory,  and  in  one  month's  time, 
demoralization  would  be  apparent;  the  police  and  fire  depart- 
ments unreliable,  fire  insurance  rates  doubled,  expenses  mount- 
ing upward,  the  air  filled  with  political  scandals,  and  the  city's 
credit  stunned  and  languishing.  Such  is  no  doubt  the  opinion 
of  probably  nineteen  New  York  business  men  out  of  twenty, 
based  upon  history,  traditions,  experience  and  observation. 
If  manhood  suffrage  be  right  in  principle,  the  government  of 
cities  by  representatives  chosen  at  ward  or  district  elections 
would  be  the  most  successful  feature  of  the  American  democ- 
racy; for  all  the  adjuncts  of  a  working  democracy,  public 
schools,  newspapers,  conferences  and  discussion  of  political 
questions  abound  in  the  city  more  than  in  the  country;  but  the 
contrary  is  the  case.  All  these  advantages  are  offset  and  more 


THE   PLUNDER   OF   THE    CITIES  217 

by  the  simple  fact  that  the  controllable  vote  is  greater  in  the 
city  than  in  the  country.  As  to  city  government  by  officials 
appointed  under  legislative  authority,  that  too  has  always 
failed  for  the  reason  that  it  has  always  been  corrupted  by  the 
legislative  taint.  Most  of  Tweed's  plundering  was  done  with 
legislative  sanction. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  American  atmosphere  nor  in  the 
American  blood  to  prevent  a  pure  civic  administration.  This 
appears  by  the  actual  experience  of  the  City  of  Washington. 
In  1867  Congress  established  municipal  government  by  man- 
hood suffrage  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  "Under  these 
"conditions  unrestricted  suffrage  produced  extravagance,  cor- 
"ruption  and  other  incidents  of  bad  government."  Lalor's 
Cyclopedia,  Suffrage.)  Result,  that  in  1878  Congress  had  to 
abolish  elections  in  the  District  and  to  go  back  to  the  system 
which  had  been  adopted  in  1798  of  a  government  by  an  ap- 
pointed board  of  three  commissioners.  "Nevertheless"  (says 
Eaton)  "the  City  of  Washington,  under  this  new  system,  has 
"had  the  most  economical,  efficient,  and  respectable  government 
"of  any  city  in  the  United  States."  (Government  of  Munici- 
palities, p.  156.)  Here  the  appointing  power  is  absolutely 
free  from  the  influence  of  the  controllable  vote  or  of  any  vote 
of  the  people  of  Washington.  This  instance  shows  clearly 
that  the  mischief  in  our  popular  system  lies  in  the  electorate 
itself.  Meantime  the  people  of  Washington  are  to  be  con- 
gratulated that  they  are  free  from  the  brutality  and  roguery 
of  a  universal  suffrage  popular  government. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

BRIEF  REFERENCE  TO  MANY  NOTED  DISCLOSURES  OF  GOVERN- 
MENTAL CORRUPTION  MOSTLY  IN  STATE  AND  FEDERAL 
AFFAIRS  SINCE  THE  INSTITUTION  OF  MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE 
IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

IT  is  an  unpleasant  task,  that  of  dragging  to  light  past 
records  of  malversation  in  office,  and  it  is  nearly  equally  un- 
pleasant to  inspect  them  after  production;  and  though  it  be 
necessary  for  the  purpose  in  hand  to  set  before  the  reader  a 
number  of  instances  of  such  misdeeds,  the  tale  will  be  con- 
densed and  shortened  as  much  as  possible,  down  almost  to  a 
mere  enumeration  of  the  scandals  referred  to.  Most  writers, 
native  and  foreign,  who  have  undertaken  to  criticize  official  de- 
linquency in  this  country,  have  been  content  to  rely  upon  their 
readers'  general  knowledge  of  the  facts.  The  present  writer 
is  aware  that  his  readers  also  are  probably  already  prepared 
to  give  from  memory  and  tradition  a  general  assent  to  the 
accusations  herein  contained,  but  he  wishes  for  present  pur- 
poses to  refresh  this  recollection  and  to  fortify  this  tradition. 
After  all,  most  of  us  have  but  a  dim  remembrance  of  even  the 
most  interesting  details  of  past  history;  that  is  why  each  gen- 
eration repeats  the  mistakes  of  the  last  one.  The  distinguished 
Spanish  philosophical  novelist  Blasco  Ibanez  has  been  fre- 
quently heard  to  say  that  nations  learn  but  little  by  their  mis- 
takes; that  when  disaster  comes  the  people  cry  aloud  in  pain, 
anger  and  indignation,  and  make  strong  resolves  of  future 
amendment;  but  when  the  trouble  passes  they  forget  alike  the 
lessons  learned  and  the  good  resolutions  taken.  The  writer 
earnestly  desires  to  create  in  the  minds  of  his  readers  such  a 
feeling  of  indignation  as  can  only  arise  from  a  clear  and  defi- 

218 


STATE  AND  FEDERAL  CORRUPTION          2 19 

nite  realization  of  the  facts,  and  yet  it  is  impossible  to  give 
them  in  detail ;  the  volume  would  be  too  great.  The  scandalous 
instances  referred  to  in  this  chapter  and  elsewhere  in  this  book 
are  but  a  very  small  part  of  the  story  of  popular  misgovern- 
ment  in  the  United  States  under  the  manhood  suffrage  regime, 
and  even  if  to  them  were  added  every  other  instance  of  official 
misconduct  discovered  or  published  for  the  period  we  are  con- 
sidering the  whole  would  fall  far  short  of  a  full  measure  of 
the  mischief  done,  for  it  would  amount  to  no  more  than  a  recital 
of  its  superficial  indications  and  symptoms.  We  all  know 
that  gross  but  hidden  corruption  may  long  fester  in  the  body 
politic,  or  in  a  public  institution,  unknown  to  the  world  at 
large,  until  disclosed  by  some  flagrant  display,  which  like  a 
spot  on  the  surface  of  an  apple  reveals  the  decay  and  putridity 
within.  And  so  here,  the  whole  American  political  system  has 
been  corrupted  by  the  virus  of  the  controllable  vote;  and  these 
scandals  are  but  the  eruptions  denoting  the  diseased  inward 
condition.  Besides  this,  the  reader  is  asked  to  bear  in  mind 
that  the  instances  here  given  by  no  means  constitute  a  com- 
plete record;  they  are  only  a  few  of  the  most  important  pub- 
licly disclosed  cases.  No  attempt  was  made  at  thorough  re- 
search or  investigation;  only  those  are  mentioned  which  are 
generally  known,  and  which  came  readily  to  the  writer's 
memory,  or  appeared  on  a  cursory  examination  of  a  few  pub- 
lications; whereas  out  of  one  hundred  discovered,  an  average  of 
but  ten  are  publicly  denounced  and  but  one  judicially  convicted. 
Here  are  only  the  large  and  important,  only  the  national  and 
state  plunder  conspiracies ;  the  misdeeds  of  the  chiefs  and  mas- 
ters; for  each  one  of  these  there  have  been  a  hundred  smaller 
thefts,  pilferings  and  frauds;  a  thousand  village,  town  and 
county  knaveries.  Below  or  attached  to  each  chief  were  scores 
or  Jiundreds  of  subordinates  or  followers;  how  many  of  them 
escaped  the  contagion  of  the  evil  example  of  their  leaders  and 
superiors?  These  half  hundred  scandals  about  to  be  set  down 
in  this  chapter,  properly  considered,  do  not  merely  represent  the 
trespasses  of  fifty  individuals;  they  really  show  forth  the  mis- 


220      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

conduct  and  depravity  of  a  class  and  the  corruption  and  dis- 
grace of  an  entire  political  system. 

The  Golphin  claim  for  $43,000  was  an  old  revolutionary 
claim  originally  made  not  against  the  United  States,  but  against 
Georgia.  In  1835  a  politician  named  Crawford  became  at- 
torney for  the  claimants  on  a  contingent  fee  of  one-half.  In 
1848  a  bill  authorizing  its  payment  out  of  the  U.  S.  Treasury 
was  passed  through  Congress  without  discussion,  and  the  claim 
was  paid  in  full.  In  1850,  this  same  Crawford  being  Secretary 
of  War,  the  Treasury  Department  was  induced  by  some  one 
to  pay  the  claimant  $191,000  for  back  interest  in  addition  to 
the  principal  already  paid.  Of  this  sum  Crawford  received 
$94,000.  The  names  of  three  cabinet  officers  were  smirched 
by  the  scandal  which  ensued  on  the  discovery  of  the  facts. 

A  majority  of  the  Wisconsin  legislature  of  1856  was  bribed 
to  vote  for  a  valuable  land  grant  to  the  La  Crosse  and  Mil- 
waukee Railroad  Company.  Stocks  and  bonds  to  the  amount 
of  $175,000  were  distributed  among  thirteen  senators,  and 
$335,000  among  members  of  the  Assembly.  The  Governor 
received  $50,000;  his  private  secretary  $5,000,  and  other 
officials  corresponding  sums  all  in  bonds  of  the  company. 
(Rhodes,  III,  p.  61.) 

"The  investigation  of  the  scandal  of  the  Milwaukee  and  La 
"Crosse  Railway  Company  in  Wisconsin  (1858)  showed  that 
"about  $900,000  worth  of  bonds  had  been  distributed  among 
"legislators  and  prominent  politicians  in  the  state.  Conditions 
"like  these  have  probably  obtained  in  all  the  states  at  some  time 
"or  other."  (Reinsch,  p.  231.)  . 

In  1857  three  members  of  the  National  House  of  Represen- 
tatives were  proved  guilty  of  corrupt  practices,  and  resigned 
their  seats  to  avoid  expulsion. 

In  1867-8  was  the  famous  Erie  Railroad  scandal  which  for 
months  occupied  the  attention  of  the  public  of  the  entire  coun- 
try. It  presented  a  series  of  dramatic  incidents,  and  the 
merest  possible  outline  of  its  history  is  sufficient  to  enlighten 
the  reader  as  to  the  rotten  conditions  then  prevailing  in  New 


STATE  AND  FEDERAL  CORRUPTION          221 

York  State  politics.  William  M.  Tweed  was  the  political 
boss  of  New  York  City  and  was  aiming  to  control  the  Legis- 
lature. The  judges  of  the  New  York  Supreme  Court  had  been 
elected  by  manhood  suffrage  and  one  of  them  named  Barnard 
was  one  of  his  creatures.  Jay  Gould,  a  financial  adventurer 
of  New  York  City,  who  died  worth  fifty  millions  of  dollars,  was 
then  at  the  beginning  of  his  career;  one  of  his  associates  was  a 
still  more  picturesque  adventurer  named  Fisk.  The  Vander- 
bilts,  then  and  now  a  very  wealthy  family  of  New  York  City, 
desiring  to  get  control  of  the  management  of  the  Erie  Railroad 
Company  started  to  purchase  in  the  open  market  enough  shares 
of  its  stock  for  that  purpose.  To  defeat  this  project  one  Drew, 
then  in  control  of  the  Erie  Railroad  Company,  issued  58,000 
new  shares  of  Erie  stock.  It  was  charged  that  this  issue  was 
illegal  and  that  Drew  kept  printing  the  shares  as  fast  as  the 
Vanderbilts  could  buy  them.  Jay  Gould  was  reported  to  have 
pocketed  several  millions  by  the  transaction.  Thereupon,  the 
Vanderbilts  took  legal  proceedings  to  annul  this  58,000  shares. 
Drew,  Fisk,  Gould  and  others  escaped  during  a  fog  in  row- 
boats  from  New  York  City  across  the  Hudson  River  to  New 
Jersey  and  began  a  suit  for  conspiracy  against  the  Vanderbilts 
and  Judge  Barnard  of  the  Supreme  Court.  An  attempt  to 
kidnap  them  and  bring  them  back  to  New  York  was  made  and 
failed.  Gould  obtained  a  handsome  residence  in  New  Jersey, 
and  the  Drew  clique  and  he  began  an  effort  to  acquire  a  cor- 
rupt control  of  the  New  Jersey  Legislature  for  the  purpose 
of  getting  their  acts  legalized,  and  also  had  a  bill  introduced 
into  the  New  York  Legislature  with  that  object.  Doubtless  it 
was  hoped  to  set  the  two  legislatures  of  New  York*  and  New 
Jersey  underbidding  each  other  for  the  Drew-Gould  money. 
The  New  York  legislators  were  only  getting  $300  a  year  sal- 
ary at  that  time,  and  were  eager  for  a  share  of  the  money 
which  was  expected  to  be  distributed  in  payment  for  this 
legislation.  All  ordinary  usiness  of  the  New  York  legislature 
was  comparatively  neglected,  while  groups  gathered  about  the 
hallways  and  the  cloak  room  of  the  Capitol  in  Albany  talking 


222      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE  UNITED   STATES 

in  undertones.  A  fair  rate  for  members'  votes  was  mentioned 
as  between  $2,000  and  $3,000  each.  The  Erie  people,  how- 
ever, at  first  offered  only  $1,000  a  vote,  $500  down  and  $500 
when  the  bill  became  a  law.  Boss  Tweed  advised  the  members 
to  stand  firm  and  they  would  get  more  from  the  Vanderbilts. 
The  matter  got  before  the  Railroad  Committee  of  the  As- 
sembly. The  Committee  was  reported  to  be  divided.  Sud- 
denly a  rumor  started  that  Vanderbilt  and  Drew  were  com- 
promising. This  created  a  panic  among  the  Albany  legislators. 
Some  of  them  it  was  said  began  to  offer  to  take  $500.  Soon 
the  Assembly  Railroad  Committee  reported  unanimously 
against  the  bill ;  the  report  was  agreed  to  and  the  bill  was  sup- 
posed to  be  killed.  A  member  of  the  Assembly  named  Glenn 
then  stated  openly  that  he  had  been  approached  and  offered  a 
bribe  of  $500  to  vote  for  the  Erie  Bill  and  asked  for  a  commit- 
tee of  investigation.  The  committee  was  appointed  and  re- 
ported that  they  had  examined  the  books  of  the  railroad  com- 
pany and  found  that  no  money  had  been  used  to  influence 
the  legislature.  Glenn  resigned  his  seat.  Finally  the  bill 
actually  passed  the  Legislature.  This  was  followed  by  ve- 
hement charges  of  corruption  in  the  public  press  and  elsewhere. 
It  was  stated  that  one  senator  had  obtained  $15,000  from  one 
side,  and  then  $20,000  from  the  other  side;  and  still  not  satis- 
fied, wanted  $1,000  more  for  his  son  who  acted  as  his  private 
secretary.  Another  committee  of  investigation  was  appointed 
which  subsequently  reported  that  they  could  find  no  proof  of 
wrong  doing.  Vanderbilt  and  Drew  now  compromised  mat- 
ters and  Tweed  joined  the  Drew,  Gould  and  Fisk  combination 
and  was  made  a  director  of  the  Erie  Company  as  part  of  a 
scheme  to  obtain  the  votes  of  the  counties  through  which  the 
Erie  Railroad  ran  for  Hoffman,  who  was  Tweed's  man,  as 
Governor.  Tweed  was  to  manage  the  courts  in  the  interests  of 
the  Erie.  Then  began  an  effort  by  the  Erie  to  get  control  of 
the  Albany  &  Susquehanna  Railroad  and  thereupon  ensued 
another  fight  in  the  courts,  Judge  Barnard,  who  was  Tweed's 
judge,  issuing  orders  on  one  side  in  New  York  and  Judge  Peck- 


STATE  AND  FEDERAL  CORRUPTION          223 

ham  making  counteracting  orders  in  Albany.  Gould  and  Fisk 
secured  the  Grand  Opera  House  at  Eighth  Avenue  and  Twenty- 
third  Street,  New  York  City,  for  the  main  offices  of 
the  Erie  Railway  Company,  where  they  also  established 
their  personal  headquarters.  Miss  Josie  Mansfield,  a 
well-known  friend  of  Fisk's,  took  an  adjoining  house, 
where  it  was  alleged  Judge  Barnard  held  court  and  issued 
injunctions  and  orders  of  various  kinds.  The  Susquehanna 
Railroad  people  found  it  impossible  to  get  service  upon 
either  Gould  or  Fisk  of  court  orders  issued  on  their 
behalf,  because  no  one  who  was  not  known  to  be  friendly  could 
get  into  the  Opera  House  where  the  clique  in  power  were  well 
guarded.  The  President  of  the  Albany  &  Susquehanna  Com- 
pany thereupon  sent  his  own  son  to  New  York  to  serve  papers. 
They  never  were  served  and  the  body  of  the  young  man  was 
found  a  corpse  in  the  Hudson  River  soon  afterwards. 

The  Erie  Railroad  scandal  was  connected  with  the  Wall 
Street  conspiracy  to  corner  the  gold  market  as  it  was  called, 
in  which  Fisk  and  Gould  were  also  interested.  Gold  coin  was 
then  selling  at  a  premium  everywhere  in  the  United  States; 
the  price  fluctuated  from  hour  to  hour;  a  New  York  Brokers 
Exchange,  called  the  Gold  Room,  was  entirely  devoted  to  this 
speculation;  a  daring  attempt  was  made  by  Gould,  Fisk  and 
others  to  monopolize  the  gold  supply  and  advance  the  price 
enormously.  The  mystery  as  to  what,  if  any,  high  politicians 
were  concerned  in  this  plot  was  never  solved.  Says  Henry 
Adams:  "The  Congressional  Committee  took  a  quantity  of 
"evidence  which  it  dared  not  probe  and  refused  to  analyze. 
"Although  the  fault  lies  somewhere  on  the  administration  and 
"can  lie  nowhere  else,  the  trail  always  faded  and  died  out  at 
"the  point  where  any  member  of  the  administration  became 
"visible.  .  .  .  The  worst  scandals  of  the  Eighteenth  Century 
"were  relatively  harmless  by  the  side  of  this,  which  smirched 
"executive,  judiciary,  banks,  corporate  systems,  professions  and 
"people,  all  the  great  active  forces  of  society,  in  one  dirty 
"cesspool  of  vulgar  corruption."  (Education  of  Henry  Adams, 
p.  271.) 


224      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

On  March  18,  1875,  Governor  Tilden,  in  a  special  message 
to  the  New  York  State  Legislature,  stated  that  for  five  years 
ending  Sept.  30,  1874,  millions  had  been  wasted  on  the  canals 
by  unnecessary  repairs  and  corrupt  contracts.  Upon  ten 
fraudulent  contracts  New  York  State  had  paid  more  than  one 
and  one-half  million  dollars  while  the  proposals  at  contract 
price  called  for  less  than  half  a  million.  The  exact  figures  are: 

Paid  by  the  State $1,560,769.84 

Amount  of  Contracts 424,735.90 

A  commission  to  investigate  was  created.  Indictments  were 
found  against  the  son  of  a  state  senator,  a  member  of  the 
board  of  canal  appraisers,  an  ex-canal  commissioner,  two 
ex-superintendents  of  canals,  and  one  division  engineer.  (See 
Political  History  of  New  York,  Alexander,  p.  324.) 

From  1867  to  1872  were  in  progress  the  Union  Pacific  Rail- 
road irregularities  commonly  known  as  the  Credit  Mobilier 
frauds  in  which  a  number  of  prominent  United  States  Congress- 
men were  implicated. 

The  Freedmen's  Bureau  (Federal)  irregularities  covered 
1871  and  1872,  and  after  investigation  large  sums  remained 
unaccounted  for. 

From  1872  to  1874  were  exposed  the  Internal  Revenue 
Moiety  frauds,  involving  millions  and  implicating  Secretary 
Richardson  of  the  United  States  Treasury  and  many  other 
Treasury  and  Internal  Revenue  officials. 

In  1874  were  investigated  and  exposed  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia government  scandals  involving  "Boss"  Shepherd  and 
others  connected  with  the  Washington  City  administration. 

The  noted  whiskey  ring  frauds  were  perpetrated  from 
1869  to  1874  and  were  exposed  about  the  latter  date.  In  those 
frauds  a  number  of  important  United  States  government  offi- 
cials were  implicated  and  the  Treasury  was  defrauded  out  of 
over  two  millions  thereby. 

Pennsylvania  State  politics  have  for  over  half  a  century  had 
the  reputation  of  being  extremely  corrupt.  One  of  its  most 


STATE   AND    FEDERAL    CORRUPTION  22$ 

noted  political  bosses  was  Simon  Cameron,  who  was  at  the 
head  of  the  principal  Pennsylvania  ring  for  about  twenty 
years  prior  to  1877.  He  was  able  more  than  once  to  force  or 
purchase  his  election  as  United  States  Senator  and  was  also 
able  to  deliver  the  vote  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  to  Lincoln 
in  the  Chicago  Convention  of  1860  thus  defeating  Seward.  For 
this  service  and  as  the  result  of  a  bargain  then  made  he  was  ap- 
pointed by  Lincoln  Secretary  of  War  in  1861.  His  adminis- 
tration of  that  office  was  so  scandalous  that  he  was  soon  com- 
pelled to  resign.  (Arena,  January,  1905.) 

The  Belknap  War  Department  scandals  covered  the  period 
from  1870  to  1876.  Belknap  was  Secretary  of  War  and  being 
threatened  with  impeachment  resigned  his  office. 

The  Star  Route  frauds  exposed  in  1881  were  the  result  of 
conspiracies  between  high  post-office  officials  at  Washington, 
a  former  United  States  Senator  Dorsey  of  Arkansas  and  others. 
Large  sums  of  government  money  were  obtained  by  means  of 
fraudulent  mail  contracts. 

Philadelphia.  Next  to  the  New  York  Tweed  Ring  the  most 
famous  in  American  municipal  life  was  the  Philadelphia  gas 
ring  (1870-1881).  Its  boss  (Republican),  named  McManus, 
absolutely  controlled  about  twenty  thousand  voters  who  were 
dependent  on  the  ring  in  one  way  or  another.  No  candidate 
hostile  to  the  ring  could  be  nominated  for  office.  The  posses- 
sion of  the  great  city  offices  gave  the  ring  members  oppor- 
tunity to  make  fortunes  and  at  the  same  time  the  power  to 
contribute  large  sums  to  the  party  funds.  Great  numbers  of 
city  employees  were  put  under  pay.  The  debt  of  the  city, 
which  was  $20,000,000  in  1860  rose  in  1881  to  $70,000,000. 
Finally  a  committee  of  one  hundred  citizens  was  created  to 
obtain  redress  and  there  were  legal  proceedings  against  those 
implicated  and  some  convictions.  Referring  to  this  episode 
a  writer  says: 

"Its  debt  (Philadelphia's)  increased  at  the  rate  of  three 
"millions  a  year  without  any  important  improvement  being  in- 
troduced into  the  municipal  plant;  inefficiency,  waste,  badly 


226      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

"paved  and  filthy  streets,  unwholesome  and  offensive  water  and 
"a  slovenly  and  costly  management.  The  ring  manufactured 
"majorities  at  the  polls  by  means  of  frauds  in  the  voting  and 
"counting  of  the  ballots;  it  bought  votes  wholesale  and  re- 
"tail,  forcing  all  those  who  received  salaries  from  the  city  to 
"provide  the  wherewithal  for  corruption.  The  policemen  them- 
"selves  had  to  contribute.  Like  the  Tammany  Ring,  the  Gas 
"Ring  stopped  the  mouth  of  the  press  by  regular  subsidies  so 
"that  not  a  single  paper  could  be  found  to  plead  the  cause  of 
"honest  government."  The  story  of  the  Philadelphia  Gas  Ring 
is  well  told  by  Mr.  Bryce.  (American  Commonwealth.) 

Philadelphia  municipal  scandals  have  been  so  numerous  that 
they  would  require  a  volume  to  themselves  to  treat  them  fully. 
In  1901  there  was  the  Street  Franchise  scandal.  Fourteen 
street  franchises  worth  millions  were  granted  free  by  the 
Philadelphia  city  government  to  members  of  a  political  ring. 
As  proof  of  the  rascality  of  the  transaction  John  Wanamaker 
publicly  offered  the  city  $2,500,000  cash  for  these  same 
franchises,  admitting  that  they  were  worth  much  more.  The 
political  corruption  there  was  said  to  equal  that  of  anything 
ever  known  in  New  York  except  in  Tweed's  time.  In  certain 
parts  of  the  city  in  1905  about  forty  per  cent  of  the  vote 
cast  was  said  to  be  fraudulent.  "Crimes  against  the  ballot 
"box  no  longer  seemed  to  affront  the  public  conscience." 

In  1898  there  was  a  great  scandal  in  connection  with  the 
failure  of  the  People's  Bank  of  Philadelphia  in  which  United 
States  Senator  Quay  and  State  Treasurer  Haywood  were  im- 
plicated. About  $500,000  state  funds  and  $50,000  city  funds 
disappeared  and  were  never  recovered. 

In  1900  occurred  the  Grand  Rapids  Water  Scandals.  Bribes 
to  the  amount  of  $100,000  were  distributed  to  City  officials. 
The  City  Attorney  was  convicted,  and  there  were  twenty-four 
indictments  of  ex-aldermen,  politicians,  newspaper  men  and 
others. 

Spanish  War  Scandals.  These  were  numerous.  Here  is  one 
specimen  of  many.  In  1899  military  goods  were  sold  for 


STATE    AND    FEDERAL    CORRUPTION  227 

$10,500  and  purchased  back  for  $60,000.  There  were  in- 
dictments and  convictions. 

In  January,  1903,  President  Roosevelt  instituted  an  inves- 
tigation in  the  Post  Office  Department  which  resulted  in  the 
revelation  of  a  large  number  of  fraudulent  contracts  by  which 
the  government  had  been  robbed  of  thousands  of  dollars,  and 
the  criminal  conviction  of  two  United  States  senators. 

St.  Louis.  The  following  interesting  story  of  political  ras- 
cality appeared  in  McC lure's  in  November  1902.  In  1898 
one  Snyder,  capitalist  and  promoter,  came  to  St.  Louis  with 
a  traction  proposition  inimical  to  the  interests  of  the  city  rail- 
ways, who  were  then  paying  seven  members  of  the  council 
$5,000  each  per  year  to  protect  them,  besides  paying  another 
councilman  a  special  retainer  of  $25,000  to  watch  these  seven 
boodlers.  Snyder  set  about  buying  the  members,  who  then 
went  back  on  their  first  bargain,  and  arranged  a  meeting  to 
see  if  they  could  not  agree  on  a  new  price.  The  meeting  broke 
up  in  a  row  and  each  man  started  in  to  work  for  himself. 
Four  councilmen  got  from  Snyder  $10,000  each,  one  got 
$15,000,  another  $17,500,  another  $50,000;  twenty-five 
members  of  the  House  of  Delegates  got  $3,000  each.  In  all 
Snyder  paid  $250,000  for  the  franchise,  and  as  the  traction 
people  had  raised  only  $175,000  to  beat  it,  the  franchise  was 
passed.  Then  Snyder  sold  out  to  his  old  opponents  for  $i,- 
250,000.  He  was  criminally  convicted  some  years  later  on 
charges  growing  out  of  this  affair. 

Missouri — 1903.  Baking  Powder  Scandal.  Various 
members  of  the  legislature  charged  with  accepting  bribes  in 
connection  with  legislation  in  favor  of  the  baking  powder 
monopoly. 

1904  —  Oregon  Land  Scandal.  Senator  Mitchell,  Congress- 
man Williamson  and  others  were  charged  with  conspiracy  and 
bribery  in  an  attempt  to  defraud  the  government.  Two  con- 
gressmen were  convicted. 

St.  Louis.  In  an  editorial  in  the  Arena  for  January  1905 
it  is  stated  that  in  St.  Louis  free  government  has  been  de- 


228      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT    IN    THE   UNITED    STATES 

stroyed  by  shameful  crimes;  and  in  an  article  by  Lee  Meri- 
wether,  formerly  Labor  Commissioner  for  Missouri,  and 
author  of  a  number  of  books  of  travel,  the  writer  describes 
a  transaction  by  which  a  street  franchise  was  obtained  in  St. 
Louis  in  January  1902  by  one  Turner.  The  amount  to  be 
paid  the  municipal  council  for  the  franchise  was  $135,000 
which  was  put  in  a  safety-vault  box  of  which  an  agent  had  one 
key  and  the  boodlers  the  other.  The  franchise  was  granted, 
but  a  citizen  obtained  an  injunction  from  the  courts,  where- 
upon the  agent  refused  to  pay.  Afterwards  Turner  became 
State's  evidence;  the  box  with  the  $135,000  was  produced  in 
court,  a  number  of  the  members  of  the  municipal  council  were 
convicted,  and  some  fled  the  country. 

California  Legislature.  In  1905  the  California  Senate  ap- 
pointed a  committee  of  seven  to  investigate  alleged  misman- 
agement of  certain  building  and  land  associations.  A  majority 
of  the  committee  selected  an  agent  to  approach  the  officers  of 
one  of  the  associations,  with  the  result  that  the  sum  of  $1400 
was  agreed  upon  and  paid  to  stop  the  investigation.  The 
agent  confessed;  four  senators  were  expelled,  and  two  were 
convicted  by  the  courts. 

Ohio.  An  important  investigation  was  undertaken  by  the 
Drake  Committee  of  the  Ohio  Senate  in  1906.  In  inquiring 
into  the  affairs  of  Cincinnati,  the  committee  caused  the  return 
to  the  public  treasury  of  over  $200,000,  which  had  been  given 
as  gratuities  to  (state)  treasurers,  by  banks  favored  in  the 
deposit  of  Hamilton  County  funds. 

New  York  Insurance  Frauds.  A  New  York  legislative  com- 
mittee investigated  the  great  life  insurance  companies  in 
1905-6.  Results  showed  that  Republican  as  well  as  Demo- 
cratic legislators  had  been  bought,  and  that  enormous  corrup- 
tion funds  had  been  contributed  to  both  political  parties. 
Bribery  expenditures  were  classified  on  the  various  insurance 
companies'  books  as  "legal  expenses."  In  1904  alone,  the 
Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company  thus  disbursed  $364,254,  the 
Equitable  Life  Assurance  Society  $172,698,  the  New  York  Life 


STATE    AND    FEDERAL    CORRUPTION  22() 

Insurance  Company  $204,019.  From  1898  to  1904  the  Mu- 
tual Company  expended  more  than  $2,000,000  in  so-called 
"legal  expenses"  supposed  to  be  payments  to  influence  legis- 
lation. From  1895  to  1904  the  total  payments  made  by  the 
New  York  Life  to  its  chief  lobbyist  at  Albany  were  $1,312,197. 

Boston,  Mass.  In  1907  public  hearings  before  a  com- 
mittee of  investigation  resulted  in  eleven  indictments  mostly 
of  city  officials  and  contractors  for  frauds  against  the  city. 
Gross  incompetency,  neglect  and  non-efficiency  of  some  of  the 
city  departments  and  officials  and  mismanagement  of  city 
business  was  revealed. 

Pennsylvania ,  1907.  The  State  Capitol  scandals.  About 
$9,000,000  was  paid  for  furniture  for  the  State  Capitol,  being 
an  excess  of  $6,000,000  over  actual  cost.  There  were  a 
number  of  criminal  convictions  of  public  officials  in  connection 
with  this  affair. 

San  Francisco  — 1907  and  1908.  The  Ruef  Scandals. 
These  related  to  the  procuring  of  street  franchises  by  the 
bribery  of  members  of  the  San  Francisco  board  of  supervisors 
through  the  agency  of  Abraham  Ruef,  a  political  boss.  Nearly 
one  hundred  indictments  were  filed,  and  there  were  some  con- 
fessions and  convictions. 

Larimer  Scandal.  A  general  corruption  fund  called  "the 
jack-pot"  was  made  in  1908,  from  which  payments  were  made 
to  the  Illinois  legislators  for  their  votes.  Lorimer  was  elected 
United  States  Senator,  January  nth,  1909,  through  a  Republi- 
can-Democratic combination.  There  were  negotiations  for  the 
delivery  of  a  block  of  fifteen  votes  at  prices  reported  to  be  as 
high  as  $30,000.  Certain  votes  were  purchased  at  $900  to 
$2500.  There  were  judicial  proceedings  and  some  confessions. 

The  New  York  "Yellow  Dog"  Scandal.  On  the  investiga- 
tion of  charges  that  Senator  Allds  of  New  York  had  in  1910 
accepted  money  for  preventing  legislation,  it  was  shown  that 
in  the  course  of  a  few  years  two  or  three  joint  funds  were 
raised  among  bridge-building  companies  for  political  "protec- 
tion" at  Albany.  The  names  of  a  former  speaker  of  the 


230      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES 

legislature  and  another  member,  both  dead,  were  given  as 
having  received  these  bribes. 

Colorado.  In  the  Cosmopolitan  Magazine  for  December, 
1910,  it  was  stated  that  on  one  occasion,  when  the  franchises 
of  some  public  service  corporations  were  in  peril,  a  Republican 
leader  took  $20,000  of  his  campaign  fund  to  Democratic  head- 
quarters to  save  the  day  for  his  "interests."  As  many  as  8,000 
fraudulent  votes  have  been  available  in  Denver  for  whichever 
party  was  slated  by  the  "interests"  to  win. 

Pennsylvania.  William  Flinn,  who  together  with  Senator 
Quay  was  in  control  of  Republican  politics  for  many  years 
in  Pennsylvania,  testified  before  a  senatorial  committee  in 
1912  that  he  had  contributed  so  far  that  year  nearly  $150,000 
to  the  political  campaign,  both  for  the  work  in  the  primaries 
before  the  convention,  and  for  the  presidential  campaign  after 
the  convention. 

In  an  article  entitled  "Case  of  the  Quaker  City"  (Outlook, 
May  25,  1912)  the  writer  states  that  Philadelphia  has  paid  a 
contractor  $520,000  each  year  to  remove  its  garbage,  which 
he  has  then  resold  in  the  form  of  profitable  products;  in  an 
outlying  district  people  have  been  arrested  for  feeding  their 
own  garbage  to  their  own  pigs ;  the  contractor  wanted  it.  Upon 
a  change  of  administration  in  1912,  over  $800,000  of  unpaid 
bills  for  1911  and  previous  years  were  found.  It  required 
about  $4,000,000  of  borrowed  money  to  make  up  the  deficiency 
in  appropriations  for  current  expenses  for  1912,  and  about 
as  much  more  to  provide  for  routine  items  of  neglected  main- 
tenance, such  as  condemned  boilers,  elevators,  dilapidated 
sewers,  dangerous  bridges.  All  this  notwithstanding  the  fact 
that,  in  addition  to  funds  raised  from  taxation  and  other  cur- 
rent revenue,  $51,000,000  was  borrowed  in  the  last  four  years 
with  practically  nothing  to  show  for  it.  Commenting  on  this 
state  of  affairs  the  writer  says: 

"To  democracy  are  we  committed.  Does  this  mean  that  we 
"are  forever  to  live  loosely,  scandalously,  until  nature  rebels 
"and  we  have  to  fly  to  a  violent  cure,  a  political  Carlsbad,  a 


STATE    AND    FEDERAL    CORRUPTION  231 

"civil  war,  be  cleansed  only  to  begin  over  again  each  time? 
"Does  the  theory  of  democracy  exact  more  than  human  nature 
"has  to  give?" 

Congress.  The  United  States  Congress,  judged  by  any 
proper  ethical  standard,  has  been  for  a  long  time  past  a  more 
or  less  corrupt  body,  as  has  frequently  appeared  by  its  fre- 
quent large  and  scandalous  misappropriations  of  public  funds 
made  on  the  demand  of  a  very  low  class  of  voters  manipulated 
by  rascally  politicians.  The  money  thus  stolen  and  wasted  has 
earned  the  euphonious  title  of  "Pork,"  and  has  usually  been 
distributed  in  the  shape  of  appropriations  for  unnecessary  pub- 
lic buildings,  or  harbor  improvements.  Federal  court  houses 
costing  very  large  sums  have  been  extravagantly  built  and  are 
being  maintained  in  places  where  the  court  sits  only  a  few 
days  in  a  year,  and  where  therefore  the  hiring  of  a  few  rooms 
for  the  occasion  of  the  court's  session  would  have  been  suffi- 
cient. Among  the  items  represented  in  the  appropriation  bill 
for  1913  are  the  following: 

The  City  of  New  Haven,  with  a  population  of  180,000,  for  a 
post-office,  pink  marble,  $1,200,000. 

For  court  houses: — 

At  Texarkana,  Texas,  where  court  is  only  held  four  days  a 
year,  $110,000.  At  Harrison,  Arkansas,  having  a  population 
of  1600,  where  court  is  only  held  nine  days  in  a  year,  $100,000. 
At  Evanston,  Wyoming,  having  a  population  of  2500,  where 
court  is  only  held  two  days  in  a  year,  $15,000.  At  Mariana, 
Fla.,  where  court  only  sits  two  days  a  year,  $70,000. 

Gadsden,  Alabama,  a  small  town,  Federal  building,  $188,- 
ooo.  At  Anderson,  S.  C.,  a  court  house  at  $70,000  was  or- 
dered, and  at  Pikeville,  Ky.,  and  in  twelve  other  towns  where 
there  was  no  court  sitting,  court  houses  were  voted. 

Post-office  at  Gainesville,  Fla.:  population  6000;  cost 
$150,000. 

In  Virginia  the  Federal  building  at  Big  Stone,  with  a  popu- 
lation of  about  one  thousand,  cost  or  is  costing  $100,000  and 
a  few  years  ago  it  was  stated  that  at  that  time  there  were 


232       POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN    THE   UNITED    STATES 

twenty-five  others  being  erected  or  recently  built  in  that  State 
in  similar  small  towns  costing  from  $5,000  to  $75,000  each. 

Expensive  post-offices  were  ordered  at  Newcastle,  Wyo- 
ming, with  a  population  of  975;  Jasper,  Ala.,  with  a  popula- 
tion of  2500;  Vernal,  Utah,  with  a  population  of  836,  and  an- 
other place  with  a  population  of  942.  Four  other  small  towns 
in  Utah  each  have  expensive  post-offices. 

These  are  samples  of  the  Federal  Building  Bill  or  "Pork" 
Bill  as  it  was  called,  of  1913,  amounting  to  $45,000,000,  which 
was  rushed  through  both  houses  on  the  log-rolling  principle. 
It  was  in  effect  a  congressional  conspiracy  to  plunder  the  gov- 
ernment. Of  this  bill  Senator  Kern  said  that  it  was  the 
"boldest  and  most  audacious  raid  on  the  public  treasury  that 
"has  been  attempted  in  recent  years.  The  pork  in  this  barrel 
"is  of  such  quality  that  it  smells  to  Heaven."  This  kind  of 
rascality  has  been  increasing.  There  was  bought  a  few  years 
ago  at  Seattle  for  a  federal  building  at  a  cost  of  $160,000, 
land  which  was  seven  feet  under  water.  In  1906  the  Federal 
Government  had  only  503  buildings  in  the  United  States,  and 
therefore  the  rate  prior  to  that  time  had  only  been  four  new 
buildings  a  year.  In  1916  it  had  967,  an  increase  of  464,  at 
the  rate  of  46  a  year  for  the  preceding  ten  years.  These  appro- 
priations were  generally  made  with  the  object  of  getting  the 
votes  of  political  contractors  and  laboring  people,  who  are  sup- 
posed to  represent  a  propertyless  class,  and  not  being  required 
to  pay  any  direct  taxes  are  believed  to  be  indifferent  to  the 
depletion  of  the  public  treasury. 

Pension  Frauds.  Under  President  Cleveland  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Pensions  Lockrien  unearthed  enormous  pension 
frauds;  he  dropped  2266  names  from  the  rolls  and  reduced  the 
ratings  in  3343  cases.  The  cases  of  clear  fraud  amounted  to 
$18,000,000  a  year. 

Former  Secretary  of  War,  Stimson,  states  that  from  1878 
to  1908  the  cost  of  the  Federal  Government  increased  nearly 
400  per  cent,  while  the  increase  in  population  was  less  than 
84  per  cent. 


STATE   AND   FEDERAL   CORRUPTION  233 

MISCELLANEOUS    MINOR   SCANDALS. 

Illinois — 1901.  Investigation  disclosed  that  $65,000  a 
year  was  being  collected  by  politicians  from  the  salaries  of 
those  employed  at  the  State  Insane  Hospital  and  other  State 
Institutions. 

Minnesota — 1903.  Minneapolis  City  scandals.  Convic- 
tion of  Chief  of  Police  and  an  ex-Mayor  on  charges  of  black- 
mailing gamblers,  etc.;  attempted  bribery  of  County 
Commissioners. 

Land  and  Post-Office.  In  1903  politicians  and  others  were 
indicted  in  Nebraska  for  corrupt  land  and  post-office  transac- 
tions. 

Other  similar  post-office  irregularities  in  McKinley's  ad- 
ministration, implicating  high  officials;  many  indictments; 
gross  department  incompetence  and  carelessness  revealed 

(1903). 

New  York,  1904.  Fire  Department  scandals,  fraudulent 
hose  purchases  of  $23,410. 

Kansas,  1905.  Government  land  frauds  implicating  a  state 
senator  and  other  officials. 

New  York,  1905.  "The  notorious  'Ten'  carried  through  a 
"scheme  in  the  New  York  Senate,  by  which  the  Chicago  and 
"Eastern  Illinois  Railway  bonds  were  to  be  included  in  the 
"savings  bank  bill  as  proper  securities  for  investment.  The 
"  'Black  Horse  Cavalry'  had  succeeded  in  a  similar  deal  for- 
"merly  and  members  had  made  a  large  profit  on  the  consequent 
"appreciation  of  the  bonds  in  question."  (Reinsch,  p.  248.) 

New  York  —  1906.  Ahearn  scandals;  padded  payrolls,  il- 
legal purchases,  etc.,  amounting  to  millions,  involving  office  of 
Borough  President. 

New  York  — 1914.  Hunts  Point  Bathing  Place;  value 
$4300,  sold  to  the  City  of  New  York  in  1914  for  $247,000. 

Indiana — 1908.  Conspiracy  to  defraud  the  State;  former 
legislative  speaker  indicted. 

New  Jersey — 1913.     One  Kuehnle,  political  boss  of  At- 


234      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

lantic  City,  sentenced  to  prison  for  voting  as  a  water  com- 
missioner to  award  a  contract  to  a  company  of  which  he  was 
a  stockholder. 

In  1899  a  book  of  about  eight  hundred  pages,  entitled 
Thirty  Years  of  New  York  Politics,  was  published  by  Breen 
who  had  been  for  a  generation  active  in  New  York  politics 
and  had  held  office  as  member  of  the  state  legislature  and  as 
local  magistrate.  It  presents  a  vivid  picture  of  the  corruption, 
rascality  and  incapacity  that  characterized  the  politicians  of 
New  York  City  and  State  from  about  1860  to  1890.  He  tells 
of  forgeries  of  items  in  legislative  tax  bills,  the  true  bills  im- 
mediately after  passage  by  the  legislature  being  altered  by 
additions  of  items  and  the  forged  tax  bills  placed  before  the 
governor  and  signed  by  him.  Some  of  Breen's  tales  are  even 
amusing,  showing  the  open  way  in  which  the  business  of  offi- 
cial bribery  has  been  carried  on  and  the  fun  there  was  sup- 
posed to  be  in  the  business.  In  one  instance  there  was  a  gas 
bill  before  the  New  York  legislature  opposed  by  the  company 
interested.  A  lobbyist  was  in  charge  whose  original  orders  to 
pass  the  bill  were  revoked  and  he  was  directed  to  kill  it.  In 
order  to  make  his  services  appear  more  valuable  to  the  com- 
pany the  lobbyist  had  the  bill  reported  favorably.  Subse- 
quently he  had  it  defeated  and  the  members  waited  upon  him 
for  their  cash  at  the  Kenmore  House,  Albany,  N.  Y.,  the  fee 
of  each  being  $250.  Meantime  another  bill  had  been  intro- 
duced regulating  the  price  of  gas  and  the  members  were  told 
that  they  would  get  nothing  until  they  also  killed  the  second 
bill.  This  was  very  annoying  as  it  required  them  to  do  two 
jobs  for  one  fee;  but  it  had  to  be  done.  Then  the  lobbyist 
began  paying  off  some  of  the  members  at  the  Kenmore  House, 
Albany,  while  to  avoid  suspicions  which  might  be  aroused  by 
the  presence  of  too  many  members  in  one  place  his  assistant 
undertook  to  pay  off  the  others  at  the  Delavan  House.  By 
mistake  eight  of  the  members  got  money  at  each  hotel.  When 
a  return  was  demanded  they,  partly  in  joke  and  to  worry  the 
lobbyist,  refused,  claiming  that  as  they  had  done  two  jobs  they 


STATE    AND    FEDERAL    CORRUPTION  235 

were  entitled  to  two  fees;  but  finally  the  duplicate  money  was 
returned  to  the  alarmed  lobbyist.  The  reader  will  thus  see 
that  there  is  sometimes  entertainment  as  well  as  profit  in  the 
vote  traffic,  when  well  understood  by  the  participants  and 
spiritedly  conducted.  One  veteran  member  used  to  say  that 
he  considered  it  injurious  to  the  health  to  have  anything  to 
do  with  a  "contingent  bill,"  that  is  to  say  where  the  bribe  de- 
pended upon  the  result.  "I  never  can  sleep  at  all  when  I  have 
"a  contingent  bill  on  my  mind;  it  undermines  my  health  and 
"my  life  is  valuable  to  the  state.  Spot  cash  is  my  gait;  it 
"saves  all  bother."  Another  interesting  incident  told  by 
Senator  Breen  is  that  of  one  Hackley,  a  contractor,  who  put 
in  a  bid  for  a  street-cleaning  contract  in  New  York.  The  al- 
dermen delayed  voting  the  contract.  Hackley  received  a  letter 
unsigned  requesting  him  to  leave  $40,000  in  a  package  on  a 
table  in  the  City  Hall.  He  left  the  money  in  $500  bills  on  the 
aldermanic  table  in  a  package  without  any  address.  As  he 
entered  to  do  so  he  saw  four  of  the  aldermen  casually  con- 
versing by  the  door;  when  he  came  out  they  were  still  stand- 
ing there.  Nothing  was  said.  The  next  day  he  got  the 
contract.  The  courts  were  for  some  years  occupied  with  some 
questions  of  legality  regarding  this  contract  and  incidentally 
this  little  episode  came  to  light. 

If  the  reader  has  been  at  all  interested,  or  edified  by  the 
display  already  made  in  this  book  of  the  product  and  opera- 
tions of  the  manhood  suffrage  governments,  perhaps  he  would 
like  a  glimpse  of  the  methods  by  which  these  worshipful  bodies 
are  from  time  to  time  originally  created.  Here  is  a  specimen 
account  of  a  recent  event,  taken  from  the  New  Republic  of  Sep- 
tember 29,  1917.  There  was  a  contest  for  the  Republican 
leadership  of  the  Fifth  Ward,  Philadelphia,  in  which  ward, 
as  it  happens,  Independence  Hall  is  situated.  The 
police  were  under  the  control  of  a  local  boss  named 
Deutsch  who  was  himself  subject  to  the  Vere  Brothers. 
The  opposition  boss  was  named  Carey.  Ten  days  be- 
fore election  thirty  patrolmen  were  transferred  to  other 


236      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

districts  and  their  places  taken  by  men  who  could  be 
relied  on  to  work  for  Deutsch.  There  were  nightly  fights  and 
arrests;  even  reporters  were  arrested  on  false  charges  of  dis- 
orderly conduct.  On  the  eve  of  election  the  followers  of 
Deutsch  attacked  a  Carey  meeting  while  a  number  of  police 
stood  quietly  by.  The  following  morning  a  detective  was  mur- 
dered and  a  district  attorney  slugged.  The  mayor  himself 
was  accused  and  was  subsequently  arrested  on  a  charge  of 
conspiracy  in  connection  with  the  affair. 

Another  sample  of  manhood  suffrage  in  operation  was  ex- 
hibited at  the  primary  elections  at  St.  Louis  in  1904  when  Folk 
was  nominated  for  governor  of  Missouri.  A  magazine  writer 
describing  what  took  place  says  that  the  ring  opposed  to  the 
nomination  of  Folk  "stationed  thugs  outside  the  polling  places 
"with  orders  to  slug,  kick,  beat,  and  if  necessary  kill,  —  any- 
thing to  defeat  Folk/'  and  that  scores  of  men,  some  of  them 
prominent,  were  knocked  down  in  broad  daylight,  kicked  and 
beaten,  etc.,  while  the  police  stood  idly  by.  Also  that  "there 
have  been  instances  where  for  weeks  before  an  election  mem- 
bers of  the  police  department  have  gone  about  locating  vacant 
houses  and  assisting  in  registering  fictitious  names  from  such 
houses"  and  he  gives  instances  of  houses  where  many  more 
names  were  registered  than  it  was  possible  there  could  be  resi- 
dents at  the  house.  The  result  was  that  of  the  population  of 
600,000  people,  not  one  delegate  favorable  to  Folk  was  elected. 
"Former  Lieutenant  Governor  of  Missouri,  Norman  J.Coleman, 
"and  Secretary  of  Agriculture  under  President  Cleveland,  stood 
"long  in  line  to  vote,  without  making  any  progress.  He  stepped 
"out  to  make  an  investigation  and  found  that  men  were  being 
"admitted  into  the  polling  place  by  a  rear  door  and  that  there 
"was  no  chance  for  him.  Finally  a  politician  whom  he  knew 
"came  up  to  him  and  said :  'I  will  get  one  of  the  men  out  of  the 
"line  up  here  and  give  you  his  place.'  As  he  was  about  to  give 
"Mr.  Coleman  the  place  he  asked  him  for  whom  he  was  going 
"to  vote.  'For  Folk,  of  course/  was  the  answer.  Then  I  can't 
"do  anything  for  you.'  " 


STATE    AND    FEDERAL    CORRUPTION  237 

The  intelligent  reader  needs  no  argument  to  convince  him 
that  under  a  rule  of  substantial  property  qualification  none  of 
the  above  described  ruffianism  would  find  a  place  in  politics. 
Under  such  a  rule  none  of  these  precious  gangs  would  appear 
at  the  polls  or  primaries;  their  leaders  would  be  without  po- 
litical influence;  a  mayor  or  governor  supported  by  such 
blackguards  would  never  be  chosen  and  would  not  even  be  a 
candidate. 

In  1891,  Roosevelt,  as  Civil  Service  Commissioner,  went  to 
Baltimore  to  examine  the  primaries  and  made  a  report  from 
which  Ostrogorski  prints  an  extract.  He  there  saw  a  fight  for 
the  offices  between  two  factions  of  the  Republican  party.  There 
was  fraud  and  violence.  Democratic  repeaters  were  voted; 
accusations  of  ballot  box  stuffing  freely  made;  a  number  of 
fights  took  place;  many  arrests,  including  some  of  the  election 
inspectors;  bribery  was  charged;  cheating  was  talked  of  as  a 
matter  of  course;  men  openly  justified  cheating  as  fair,  pro- 
vided you  were  not  caught.  Usually,  however,  primaries  and 
elections  are  comparatively  quiet;  the  previous  manipulation 
of  the  controllable  vote  has  been  so  perfectly  done,  the  man- 
agers are  in  such  complete  accord,  and  opposition  is  so  hope- 
less, that  even  the  most  violent  and  headstrong  of  the  defeated 
party  are  subdued  into  silence,  often  no  doubt  quelled  by 
envious  admiration  for  the  victorious  scoundrels.  Such  must 
for  instance  have  been  the  case  at  the  elections  in  Colorado  in 
1904,  when  women  voted  and  they  as  well  as  men  took  part  in 
wholesale  frauds.  In  eight  precincts  a  thousand  fraudulent 
votes  were  cast.  Each  candidate  for  governor  charged  gi- 
gantic frauds  against  the  other.  Investigation  showed  that 
both  charges  were  true.  In  one  county  nine  thousand  fraudu- 
lent votes  were  cast.  A  number  of  election  judges  and  others 
were  convicted  of  ballot  box  stuffing,  repeating,  etc. 

In  1908  Helen  Sumner  made  a  prolonged  investigation  of 
political  conditions  in  Colorado,  and  thus  describes  the  failure 
of  universal  suffrage  in  that  new  and  prosperous  state. 

"Both  sexes  stay  away  from  caucus  and  convention  because 


238      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

"they  know  they  are  helpless  and  that  they  can  succeed  only  by 
"debasing  themselves  to  the  level  of  hired  political  workers. 
"The  caucus  and  convention  are  arranged  long  in  advance. 
"Corporations,  the  saloon  element,  and  special  interests  that 
"seek  control  can  afford  to  furnish  the  bosses  abundant  funds 
"to  hire  these  professional  workers,  and  both  men  and  women 
"who  value  their  honor  and  patriotism  will  not  descend  to 
"these  mercenary  methods."  (Equal  Suffrage,  p.  94.) 

It  is  useless  to  multiply  instances  of  fraud  and  humbug  at 
popular  elections;  the  whole  business  is  one  gigantic  piece  of 
fraud  and  humbug.  Its  extent  may  most  easily  be  described 
by  the  amount  of  money  it  costs.  Ostrogorski  says  that: 
"It  is  considered  that  in  1896  the  Republican  National  chair- 
"man  disposed  of  a  campaign  fund  of  seven  million  dollars. 
"In  1900  of  three  millions  and  a  half,  and  in  1904  of  three  mil- 
lions." This  national  campaign  fund  of  $3,000,000  to  $7,000,- 
ooo  is  only  a  small  portion  of  the  total  amount  collected  and 
disbursed  for  the  purpose  of  misleading,  defrauding,  deluding, 
and  humbugging  the  nation  into  giving  a  preference  to  one  of 
two  organized  gangs  over  the  other  for  two  or  four  years  more. 
Probably  from  $50,000,000  to  $100,000,000  in  all  is  expended 
in  this  way  in  a  Presidential  election.  The  latter  figure  is  the 
estimate  of  the  historian  Sloane.  And  then  we  are  told  with 
well-simulated  indignation  of  the  expenditure  of  $2,000,000 
a  year  for  the  support  of  the  British  Royal  family.  If  only 
our  millions  were  spent  as  innocently  as  in  maintaining  royal 
dignity  or  dignity  of  any  sort!  But  our  cash  goes  for  the  pur- 
pose of  creating  and  maintaining  indignities  rather  than  dig- 
nities; to  pay  for  the  assertion  and  publication  of  lies  and 
slanders;  to  stir  up  strife  at  home  and  abroad;  to  forward 
the  interests  of  political  managers  and  those  behind  them  and 
to  hire  cheating  and  fraud  at  elections.  The  latter  crimes  are 
still  being  perpetrated.  Wholesale  election  frauds  were  com- 
mitted in  New  York  City  at  a  recent  mayoralty  election  and 
many  election  officials  were  convicted.  As  late  as  November, 
1919,  there  were  widely  distributed  the  circulars  of  the  "Honest 


STATE    AND    FEDERAL    CORRUPTION  239 

Ballot  Association/'  whose  officers  included  New  York  men  and 
women  of  considerable  prominence  and  political  experience. 
Its  object  was  stated  to  be  "To  insure  clean  elections  in  New 
"York  City,  and  to  prevent  honest  votes  from  being  offset  by 
"trickery  and  fraud."  It  states  in  its  circular  that  "through  its 
"efforts  the  fraudulent  vote  of  the  city,  which  before  its  organ- 
ization was  a  public  scandal,  has  been  materially  reduced. 
"Much  remains  to  be  done  to  prevent  recurrence  of  like 
"frauds."  In  other  words,  the  public  authorities  of  New  York 
City  cannot  be  trusted  to  supervise  and  procure  a  fair  election, 
and  it  is  generally  believed  that  in  that  respect  New  York  is 
better  off  than  some  other  large  cities. 

Nine  States  of  the  Union,  namely,  Alabama,  Arkansas,  Flor- 
ida, Georgia,  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  North  Carolina,  South 
Carolina  and  Tennessee,  have  been  driven  by  misgovernment 
in  one  form  or  other  under  the  regime  of  manhood  suffrage  to 
repudiate  their  solemn  financial  obligations. 

Alabama.  In  1819  the  State  of  Alabama  began  to  establish 
state  banks,  all  of  which  became  insolvent  in  1842.  To  the 
debt  of  about  $3,500,000  incident  to  this  business,  represented 
by  bonds  held  by  innocent  holders  in  London  and  New  York, 
was  added  obligations  amounting  to  $21,000,000  incurred  in  the 
negro  suffrage  reconstruction  period,  elsewhere  described.  In 
1876  the  State  scaled  down  the  whole  debt  to  $12,574,379,  a  re- 
pudiation, including  interest,  of  about  $15,000,000  State  debt. 

Arkansas.  In  1837  and  1838  Arkansas  issued  about  $3,- 
000,000  of  bonds  in  aid  of  two  state  banks.  Part  of  this  debt 
was  subsequently  repudiated.  During  the  reconstruction 
period  about  $8,000,000  of  state  bonds  were  issued  under 
legislative  authority  for  railroad  and  levee  construction  and 
all  were  repudiated  in  1880,  thus  reducing  the  state  debt  from 
$17,000,000  principal  and  interest  to  about  $5,000,000. 

Florida.  In  1833  the  Territory  of  Florida  issued  $3,000,000 
bonds  to  the  Union  Bank,  and  in  1831  and  1835  $900,000  more 
to  other  banks.  These  obligations  were  definitely  repudiated 


24O      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

when  Florida  entered  the  Union  in  1845.  Under  an  Act 
passed  in  1855,  the  state  issued  $4,000,000  bonds  in  aid  of 
railroad  construction;  and  these  also  have  been  repudiated,  on 
the  claim  that  the  legislature  lacked  authority  to  authorize 
them. 

Georgia.  From  1868  to  1871  the  State  of  Georgia  issued 
about  $8,000,000  of  bonds  in  aid  of  railroad  construction. 
In  the  years  1875,  1876  and  1877  all  these  bonds  were  repudi- 
ated by  state  legislation. 

Louisiana.  The  debt  of  Louisiana  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
Civil  War  was  about  $10,000,000.  The  Civil  War  debt  was 
ignored.  Reconstruction  legislation  brought  up  the  state  debt 
to  about  $50,000,000.  This  was  scaled  down  by  legislative 
enactment  to  $12,000,000  and  the  rest  repudiated. 

Mississippi.  In  June  1838  the  State  of  Mississippi  issued 
$5,000,000  of  state  bonds  in  payment  of  five  thousand  shares 
of  stock  in  the  Union  Bank  of  Mississippi.  Four  years  later 
these  bonds,  then  held  by  innocent  third  parties,  were  repu- 
diated by  the  state,  although  the  highest  court  in  Mississippi 
had  declared  that  they  were  legally  issued.  A  similar  issue 
of  $2,000,000  of  state  bonds  issued  to  the  Planters  Bank  was 
repudiated  in  1852.  The  State  of  Mississippi  has  never  re- 
deemed its  honor  or  paid  the  bonds. 

North  Carolina.  In  1879  North  Carolina  passed  a  funding 
bill  by  which  in  settlement  of  a  long  controversy  with  its  bond- 
holders it  repudiated  about  $15,000,000  of  State  indebtedness. 
Bonds  issued  before  the  Civil  War  were  redeemed  at  fifty 
cents  on  the  dollar;  bonds  issued  after  the  war  to  secure  pre- 
war debts  at  twenty-five  cents;  and  reconstruction  bonds  at 
fifteen  cents  on  the  dollar. 

South  Carolina.  South  Carolina  was  in  debt  about  $3,800,- 
ooo  at  the  time  the  Civil  War  began  in  1861.  The  war  debt 
was  repudiated.  The  reconstruction  debt  amounted  to  no- 
body knows  how  much,  say  $20,000,000  and  upwards.  Nearly 
all  of  the  state  debt  was  practically  repudiated  in  1879  and 
prior  thereto. 


STATE  AND  FEDERAL  CORRUPTION          24! 

Tennessee.  In  1852  the  State  of  Tennessee  authorized  the 
issuance  of  state  bonds  in  aid  of  turnpike  and  railroad  com- 
panies. There  were  also  state  debts  incurred  in  aid  of  state 
banks,  for  the  building  of  the  state  capitol  and  other  pur- 
poses; in  all  $21,000,000.  About  $14,000,000  more  bonds 
were  issued  after  the  war  in  aid  of  railroads.  In  1883  the 
state  repudiated  about  one-half  of  this  debt. 

The  various  acts  of  repudiation  took  different  shapes  in  dif- 
ferent states,  but  in  every  instance  the  state  government  was 
a  manhood  suffrage  institution;  none  of  them  have  had  any 
other  system.  It  is  perfectly  fair  to  charge  every  dollar  of 
these  stolen  and  wasted  millions  and  every  repudiation  spot 
and  stain  on  the  fame  and  record  of  these  nine  states  to 
manhood  suffrage.  In  fact  the  candid  historian  cannot,  if 
he  would,  escape  the  damning  record  and  the  inevitable  con- 
clusion. Manhood  suffrage  has  shamefully  bankrupted  and 
dishonored  nine  American  states. 

Oh,  that  some  one  with  ability,  money  and  patience  would 
get  together  materials  for  a  complete  "History  of  Manhood 
"Suffrage/'  and  with  clear  and  burning  pen,  would  give  to  the 
world  the  story  of  its  iniquitous  century  career.  Even  if  he 
omitted  its  record  of  blood  and  corruption  in  France,  and  con- 
fined himself  to  this  country,  the  work  might  easily  swell  to 
many  volumes.  He  could  spend  twenty  busy  years  visiting 
one  village,  town  and  city  after  another,  gathering  up  the  facts 
and  figures  of  the  briberies,  corruptions,  frauds,  cheatings, 
embezzlements,  defalcations  and  thefts;  the  public  riots,  the 
drunkenness,  the  civil  and  criminal  court  proceedings,  directly 
produced  by  manhood  suffrage;  the  story  of  the  rogues  and 
incompetents  whom  it  has  put  in  public  offices  high  and  low, 
their  follies  and  villainies.  Its  grotesque  legislation,  its 
wretched  administration,  its  wastes,  extravagances,  blunders 
stupidities  and  misgovernments  would  fill  an  encyclopedia 
of  human  unwisdom.  But  no  such  work  has  ever  been  under- 
taken, and  this  volume  only  presents  a  hint  of  the  direful 


242      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

totality.  After  all  it  is  enough.  The  category  of  official 
crime  in  this  one  chapter  contained  is  sufficiently  convincing. 
These  fifty  cases  are  not  like  fifty  instances  of  peculation 
discovered  by  expert  eyes  under  a  watchful  system,  leaving  it 
pretty  certain  that  there  was  no  more  behind.  Fifty  individual 
thefts  in  eighty  years  would  not  make  a  shocking  story  as  the 
world  goes.  But  this  collection  is  merely  illustrative  of  an 
immense  mass  of  similar  material  which  cannot  be  produced  to 
the  home  reader  any  more  than  an  ore  bed  could;  though  the 
existence  thereof  any  one  may  verify  by  proper  investigation. 
The  opportunities  of  public  men  for  improper  acquisition  are 
limitless;  there  is  no  one  over  them  to  prevent  them:  they 
are  themselves  the  watchmen;  and  if  they  work  with  outside 
rogues  detection  is  ordinarily  impossible.  The  discovery  of 
each  of  these  fifty  instances  was  the  result  of  a  blunder  on  the 
part  of  these  very  careful  and  intelligent  thieves;  of  a  quarrel 
amongst  themselves,  a  mere  chance  of  some  sort,  and  by  the 
law  of  chances  may  be  taken  to  represent  fifty  thousand  similar 
undetected  frauds.  Consider  too  the  character  of  many  of 
these  items;  some  represent  a  foul  episode  in  the  history  of  a 
state;  others  in  that  of  a  great  city;  in  one  case  the  fact 
that  the  politics  of  a  rich  commonwealth  have  been  corrupt 
for  half  a  century  is  compressed  into  a  statement  of  a  few 
lines  which  is  capable  of  being  expanded  to  a  volume  of 
separate  accusations.  Fifty  years  of  spoliation  of  a  great 
state:  eighteen  thousand  days;  say  one  hundred  separate 
acts  a  day:  one  million  eight  hundred  thousand  large  and 
petty  frauds,  thefts  and  peculations  are  crowded  into  this 
single  chapter.  Each  of  the  fifty  foregoing  items  affords  a 
glimpse  at  rivers,  seas,  regions  of  official  rascality.  In  one 
case  it  is  a  state  legislature  which  goes  wrong.  This  means 
that  back  of  each  of  its  tainted  members  there  is  a  whole 
history  of  putridity,  a  rotten  county,  a  score  of  rotten  town- 
ships, years  of  local  crookedness,  trickery,  intrigue,  falsehood, 
bribery  and  corruption.  The  district  and  county  which  sells 
or  traffics  its  honors;  which  sends  an  unworthy  man  to  rep- 


STATE  AND  FEDERAL  CORRUPTION          243 

resent  it  in  the  councils  of  the  nation,  must  itself  first  have 
undergone  a  process  of  degeneration  the  details  whereof  would 
alone  require  a  volume.  The  instances  in  the  foregoing  list 
do  not  represent  individual  or  sporadic  cases  of  disease;  they 
indicate  a  moral  pestilence,  the  result  of  widespread  filth  and 
unsanitary  conditions  of  long  standing  and  the  existence 
whereof  is  proven  by  the  additional  testimony  of  the  array  of 
intelligent,  unbiased  and  high-minded  men  and  women,  states- 
men, students,  publicists,  lawyers  and  teachers,  already  quoted. 
Taking  the  whole  evidence  together,  the  record  and  the  wit- 
nesses, it  amounts  to  a  mass  of  absolutely  convincing  and  even 
overwhelming  proof  of  the  thoroughly  evil  and  corrupt  char- 
acter of  this  government  which  for  the  past  eighty  years 
has  been  imposed  upon  the  American  people  by  the  political 
oligarchy  directing  the  controllable  vote. 


CHAPTER   XV 

THE  FOUR  YEARS     CIVIL   WAR  IN    THE  UNITED   STATES   IS 
DIRECTLY    CHARGEABLE    TO    MANHOOD    SUFFRAGE 

THE  American  Civil  War,  which  lasted  four  years,  was  both 
morally  and  politically  absolutely  unnecessary  and  therefore 
absolutely  unjustifiable.  It  is  difficult  for  an  American  to  dis- 
cuss the  subject  coolly  even  at  this  distance,  when  he  realizes 
that  this,  the  greatest  calamity  which  ever  befell  the  country, 
was  perfectly  avoidable  and  was  due  entirely  to  stupidity  and 
mismanagement.  It  is  time  that  the  truth  was  told;  the  Civil 
War  was  caused,  not  by  the  difficulty  of  the  questions  to  be 
dealt  with  but  by  a  lack  of  statesmanship,  by  the  dull  selfish- 
ness and  asininity  of  the  politicians  of  the  day  and  by  the 
system  of  low  politics  which  had  long  before  been  established 
among  us.  To  say  that  the  question  between  the  free  and  the 
slave  states  was  of  a  nature  which  required  a  settlement  by 
the  sword  is  absurd.  In  1860  there  were  fifteen  slave  and 
eighteen  free  states.  The  constitutional  right  of  the  former 
to  the  ownership  of  their  slaves  could  not  be  denied;  and  the 
vast  majority  of  the  people  in  the  free  states  so  believed 
and  asserted.  The  question  on  which  the  country  was  divided 
was  whether  slavery  could  or  should  be  established  in  the 
Territories  and  in  the  new  states  to  be  erected  from  the  Terri- 
tories. To  assert  that  that  question  could  not  be  settled 
peaceably  is  to  assert  either  that  the  American  people  were 
fools  and  brutes,  which  is  not  true,  or  that  their  representatives 
having  the  matter  in  hand  were  incapables  or  worse,  which  is 
true.  The  war  was  entirely  due  to  the  conduct  and  mis- 
conduct of  the  politicians  in  power  and  they  were  placed  there 
by  manhood  suffrage. 

244 


CIVIL   WAR   CHARGEABLE   TO   MANHOOD   SUFFRAGE        245 

The  American  people  North  and  South  at  that  time  were 
as  harmless  and  peaceable  a  people  as  ever  existed  on  the  face 
of  the  earth.  They  did  not  want  any  war,  least  of  all  a  civil 
war.  Tens  of  thousands  of  inhabitants  in  each  of  the  two 
sections  had  dear  friends  and  relatives  in  the  other  section. 
Most  people  refused  even  to  believe  it  possible  until  hostilities 
actually  began  that  a  civil  war  could  possibly  be  forced 
upon  the  country.  Neither  side  was  in  any  way  prepared 
either  in  men,  officers,  equipment,  ships  or  money  for  even  a 
small  war.  There  was  no  desire  for  a  conflict  on  either  side, 
and  no  need  of  it;  and  yet  it  came;  because  the  country  was 
in  the  hands  not  of  patriotic  statesmen,  but  of  a  manhood 
suffrage  politician  President,  and  a  manhood  suffrage  politician 
Congress,  infused  with  a  small,  mean,  manhood  suffrage  spirit, 
the  spirit  of  humbug,  of  selfishness,  of  insincerity,  and  of 
moral  cowardice.  It  came  because  for  his  own  petty  tempo- 
rary purposes,  each  of  the  politicians,  too  dull  and  short 
sighted  to  see  the  danger  of  his  own  acts,  had  been  for  years 
nagging  the  people  of  his  own  district  into  dislikes,  suspicions 
and  hates  towards  the  people  of  other  districts  and  portions 
of  the  country. 

We  may  concede  the  difficulties  of  the  situation.  The 
slavery  question  had  been  so  mismanaged  that  as  far  back 
as  1844  it  had  become  a  delicate  one  needing  to  be  handled 
with  patriotic  and  enlightened  statesmanship;  but  the  men  in 
public  life  qualified  to  so  handle  it  were  after  1828  becoming 
fewer  and  fewer.  Of  courageous  and  patriotic  statesmen  there 
was  after  1852  scarcely  one  in  public  life,  and  it  was 
finally  left  to  the  newspapers  and  the  populace,  who 
undertook  to  deal  with  it  themselves  in  their  own 
characteristic  way.  This  of  course  was  to  hold  public 
meetings,  at  which  were  made  inflammatory  and  abusive 
speeches;  to  publish  and  circulate  these  speeches  with  furious 
newspaper  comments;  and  to  issue  books  and  pamphlets  de- 
nunciatory of  everybody  in  public  life.  How  does  the  ordinary 
manhood  suffrage  politician,  the  mediocrity  who  after  obeying 


246      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE  UNITED   STATES 

orders  of  vulgar  bosses  for  years  finds  himself  rewarded  with 
a  nomination  for  Congress;  how  does  he  deal  with  a  question 
where  both  money  and  feeling  are  involved?  He  "side-steps"; 
he  pussy- foots;  he  twists  and  dodges  and  sneaks  in  and  out 
till  one  side  or  the  other  shows  a  decided  preponderance  of 
votes,  and  then  he  mounts  the  platform  and  rants  defiance 
and  insults  at  the  minority.  Such  is  his  idea  of  statesmanship; 
and  though  it  makes  the  judicious  grieve  it  tickles  the  ears 
of  the  groundlings  who  are  the  majority  of  the  organization 
followers.  The  newspaper  files  inform  us  and  the  reader  can 
readily  imagine  how  for  years  Northern  and  Southern  orators 
hurled  defiance  at  safe  distances;  how  the  holders  of  per- 
fectly honest  opinions  on  both  sides  were  publicly  insulted 
every  day  in  the  week  as  slave  drivers;  nigger  lovers,  dough- 
faces, etc.  When  the  legal  question  of  the  rights  of  slavery 
in  the  territories  came  up,  there  was  no  one  to  decide  it;  it 
was  a  difference  demanding  for  its  settlement  a  courage  which 
mere  politicians  never  have;  and  requiring  as  well  a  states- 
manship and  tact  which  are  qualities  of  trained  thinkers; 
of  men  of  wide  vision;  of  experience  in  public  affairs,  and 
gifted  with  self-control;  qualities  in  short  which  especially 
belong  to  the  well-educated  classes.  It  should  have  been 
dealt  with  by  picked  men;  men  of  high  prestige;  uncontrolled 
by  passion,  and  above  a  desire  for  the  plaudits  of  the  mob. 
Such  men  were  not  to  be  found  in  public  life;  and  so  it 
was  left  to  the  decision  of  what  was  called  public  opinion; 
which  means  in  effect  that  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  demagogues, 
platform  orators,  second-rate  politicians,  extremists,  visionaries 
and  newspaper  writers.  Thousands  of  individuals  honest  and 
dishonest;  fanatics,  abolitionists  and  demagogues  on  the 
Northern  side,  and  cranks,  general  humbugs  and  notoriety 
seekers  on  the  Southern  side,  began  to  write  and  talk  on  the 
subject;  and  when  they  had  succeeded  in  irritating  everybody, 
and  when  a  certain  emotional  and  hysterical  class  was 
thoroughly  inflamed,  the  manhood  suffrage  machine  was  put 
in  operation  and  an  election  for  president  was  had.  The 


CIVIL   WAR   CHARGEABLE   TO   MANHOOD   SUFFRAGE        247 

voters  split  into  four*  parties  ;  certainly  not  according  to 
reason,  which  had  long  before  been  flung  to  the  winds  by  most 
of  them;  but  rather  according  to  temperament;  the  more  excit- 
able and  intolerant  taking  an  extreme  position;  the  others 
offering  the  customary  political  platitudes.  The  electoral  col- 
lege plan  for  the  election  of  the  president,  which  had  been 
prescribed  by  the  Constitution  to  obviate  just  such  a  catas- 
trophe, had  been  long  since  foolishly  discarded  by  the  people 
in  favor  of  a  direct  election  by  manhood  suffrage.  Lincoln, 
a  then  comparatively  unknown  man,  who  had  been  nominated 
in  a  roaring  political  convention,  was  elected  President  of  the 
United  States  by  a  minority  of  the  total  vote.  A  few  of  the 
Southern  states  whose  politicians  were  dissatisfied  with  the 
election  promptly  proposed  to  secede  from  the  Union.  They 
were  permitted  to  do  so  and  set  up  independent  governments; 
the  administration  at  Washington  being  as  usual  in  the  hands 
of  men  who  had  neither  sufficient  diplomacy,  firmness,  decision 
nor  patriotism  to  deal  with  the  situation,  or  with  any  other 
requiring  the  employment  of  honesty  and  courage. 

The  politicians  in  power  at  Washington,  as  they  were 
incapable  of  properly  dealing  with  slavery,  so  they  were  in- 
capable of  properly  dealing  with  secession.  As  nothing  timely 
was  done  to  coerce  the  first  seceding  states  they  were  in  time 
joined  by  others;  the  demagogic  rant  and  newspaper  clamor 
and  abuse  continued  unabated  on  both  sides,  but  nothing 
practical  was  done  to  save  the  situation  or  to  preserve  the 
Union;  the  seceding  states  were  allowed  four  months  to  con- 
summate their  plans;  and  were  permitted  without  molestation 
or  hindrance  to  seize  one  fort  and  arsenal  after  another,  until 
the  enterprise  of  rebellion,  which,  originating  in  a  few 
hot  heads  could  have  been  summarily  suppressed  in  Decem- 
ber 1860  had  in  April  1861  resulted  in  the  establishment 
of  a  southern  armed  confederacy  of  eleven  states.  Mean- 
time the  Northern  Democracy  looked  on  complacently 
and  did  nothing  till  the  South  made  the  dramatic 
blunder  of  firing  on  Fort  Sumter.  Sluggishness  and 


248      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

indifference  in  the  North  were  now  succeeded  by  indig- 
nation and  fury;  hostilities  began  and  lasted  four  years; 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  lives  and  thousands  of  millions 
of  property  were  uselessly  sacrificed,  and  all  because  among  the 
governing  politicians  of  the  United  States  there  had  not  been 
enough  patriotic  statesmanship  to  undertake  the  task  of  de- 
vising and  enforcing  a  peaceable  arrangement.  That  there 
was  no  inherent  difficulty  in  the  case,  insurmountable  by 
diplomacy,  is  perfectly  apparent  to  any  intelligent  mind;  and 
is  almost  conclusively  demonstrated  by  the  conceded  fact  that 
even  after  four  years'  bloody  strife  no  hopeless  division  be- 
tween North  and  South  existed;  that  the  defeated  Southern 
rank  and  file  and  their  leaders,  officers  and  generals  admitted 
that  they  had  even  then  no  insufferable  grievance;  that  they 
really  preferred  the  Union,  even  without  slavery,  to  disunion; 
and  that  the  Southerners  immediately  came  back  into  their 
places  as  citizens  of  the  Union  and  have  ever  since  been  and 
still  are  as  true  and  loyal  to  the  flag  as  the  northern  population. 
They  never  really  disliked  the  Federal  Union;  they  had  in 
fact  always  loved  it;  but  they  had  been  crazed  year  after 
year  in  the  course  of  one  political  campaign  after  another  by 
the  assaults  and  insults  of  Northern  platform  press  and  pulpit 
ranters,  and  had  been  deceived,  misled  and  egged  on  to  vio- 
lence by  their  own  demagogues.  It  was  a  case  of  the  cumu- 
lative effect  of  years  of  repeated  word  provocations  and  word 
retorts  on  both  sides;  all  delivered  either  to  promote  the 
sale  of  wicked  and  sensational  newspapers  or  for  electioneer- 
ing purposes,  or  to  capture  the  votes  of  a  senseless  rabble. 
The  effect  of  this  long-continued  agitation  was  to  derange  the 
shallow  judgment  of  the  irresponsibles,  a  class  which  includes 
hot-headed  youths,  lovers  of  turmoil,  improvident  men 
with  more  sail  than  ballast;  those  who  lack  prudence  both  in 
politics  and  in  business;  who  show  the  same  poor  judgment 
in  giving  a  vote  as  in  making  a  bargain;  who  are  as  willing 
to  rush  into  a  foolish  war  as  into  a  foolish  business  enterprise; 
who  are  reckless  because,  never  having  much,  they  can  never 


CIVIL   WAR   CHARGEABLE    TO   MANHOOD   SUFFRAGE        249 

lose  much;  in  short,  that  class  who,  though  absolutely  unable 
to  manage  their  own  affairs,  are  by  our  laws  considered  quite 
capable  of  attending  to  those  of  the  community,  and  who 
whenever  a  storm  arises  lose  their  heads  and  do  their  best 
to  wreck  the  ship.  In  a  word,  the  course  of  conduct  adopted 
by  the  politicians  of  the  country  which  resulted  in  the  war 
was  intended  to  win  the  applause  and  the  votes  of  a  set 
of  men  most  of  whom  should  not  have  been  allowed  to  vote 
at  all.  Had  the  business  men  and  the  propertied  classes  alone 
been  consulted  the  civil  war  would  never  have  broken  out. 

And  it  is  to-day  just  as  it  was  then.  When  any  question 
capable  of  being  made  the  subject  of  political  discussion,  and 
having  an  emotional  or  sympathetic  aspect,  is  brought  before 
the  public,  it  is  sure  to  be  seized  upon  by  fanatics  and  time 
servers  who  make  it  the  subject  of  clamor  and  vociferation. 
These  are  in  time  joined  by  a  lot  of  honest  but  inexperienced 
youth;  emotional  enthusiasts;  sympathetic  women  more  or 
less  hysterical;  people  with  grudges  to  pay  off;  political  ad- 
venturers; platform  ranters  eager  for  an  audience;  dema- 
gogues out  of  a  job  and  vain  fools  anxious  for  the  lime  light; 
empty  heads  who  find  society  and  excitement  in  political  or- 
ganizations and  meetings.  These  classes  of  agitators  and  the 
followers  of  agitators  exist  and  have  always  existed  here  as 
well  as  in  Russia  and  elsewhere;  and  they  are  put  in  the  front 
when  they  ought  to  be  suppressed  and  sent  to  the  rear  or  out  of 
sight.  They  are  apt  to  be  abnormal  in  vanity,  and  stop  at 
nothing  to  obtain  notoriety.  Those  of  them  who  are  soft  and 
emotional  become  crazed  with  mental  dwelling  on  one  sub- 
ject, with  the  excitement  of  political  speaking  and  the  applause 
and  criticism  they  receive;  those  of  them  who  are  cold  of 
heart  and  head  keep  up  the  din  to  attract  attention  to  them- 
selves and  to  further  their  political  fortunes;  with  them  the 
end  justifies  the  means;  exaggerations,  dishonest  equivocations, 
lies  and  even  slanders  are  to  their  small  minds  justified  by  the 
object  to  be  attained.  We  have,  for  instance,  recently  seen 
some  of  the  women  suffragists  both  in  England,  and  to  a  less 


250      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

extent  here,  in  what  they  call  their  militant  campaigns  act 
on  the  principle  that  there  are  no  morals  in  politics.  In  Eng- 
land they  resorted  to  open  and  violent  misconduct  and  even 
to  crime  to  keep  up  the  agitation.  Their  avowed  purpose 
in  doing  this  was  to  keep  their  cause  before  the  public,  and 
as  to  some  of  them  incidentally  to  earn  the  salaries  paid  by 
their  associations  for  this  vile  work.  They  believed,  and  with 
good  reason,  that  under  a  system  of  manhood  suffrage  mere 
arguments  are  insufficient;  the  unthinking  rabble  had  to  be 
won  over;  and  their  foolish  ears  must  be  filled  with  noise 
in  order  to  gain  and  keep  their  attention. 

A  similar  process  was  used  by  the  politicians  and  agitators 
on  both  sides  of  the  negro  slavery  question.  There  was  the 
unreasoning  vote  to  be  captured.  Each  candidate  for  Con- 
gress, instead  of  desiring  the  matter  amicably  settled,  wished 
rather  to  use  the  dispute  as  a  means  for  his  own  election. 
Now,  it  is  a  fact  well  known  to  politicians  that  it  is  impossible 
to  get  all  the  voters  to  the  polls  at  any  election.  Besides 
securing  the  floaters  by  means  of  agents  with  cash  and  shrewd- 
ness, the  best  way  to  induce  the  remaining  nondescripts  and 
light  weights  to  take  the  trouble  to  vote,  is  to  create  artificial 
excitement  by  means  of  meetings,  processions,  bands  of  music 
and  inflammatory  oratory.  The  opposite  side  and  their  lead- 
ers must  be  denounced  as  fools,  humbugs,  liars,  scamps, 
thieves  and  traitors.  The  wisest  are  repelled  by  this  course, 
but  they  are  a  minority  in  every  community.  Besides,  some 
of  the  men  who  know  better  than  to  believe  an  unscrupulous 
demagogue,  will  vote  for  him,  partly  out  of  gratitude  because 
he  has  amused  them  by  his  attacks  on  his  opponents,  partly 
because  he  is  the  party  candidate,  and  partly  as  the  result 
of  a  sort  of  mental  contagion.  Now,  it  was  this  campaign 
of  inflammatory  denunciation;  this  output  of  lies,  slanders  and 
vilification  indulged  in  by  the  platform  talkers  on  all  sides 
in  the  political  campaigns  of  1856,  1858  and  1860  that 
brought  on  the  Civil  War.  This  is  well  known;  but  what  is 
not  known  and  never  will  be  known  is  just  how  much  of  this 


CIVIL   WAR   CHARGEABLE   TO   MANHOOD   SUFFRAGE        251 

rascally  oratory  was  hired  and  paid  for  in  cold  cash  contributed 
by  that  class  of  people  who  always  contribute  to  election 
funds.  And  this  brutal  and  stupid  process  is  the  natural  and 
inevitable  result  of  an  attempt  to  decide  important  political 
questions  by  manhood  suffrage,  that  is  by  a  public  agitation 
undertaken  to  obtain  the  votes  of  the  most  thoughtless,  care- 
less, dull  and  unreasonable  men  of  the  country. 

But,  some  may  ask,  how  could  the  slavery  question  have 
been  amicably  settled?  Was  not  the  Civil  War  inevitable? 
By  no  means.  Great  Britain,  Spain,  Brazil,  Portugal,  Hol- 
land and  other  countries  each  had  the  same  problem.  Russia 
had  a  similar  one  in  the  case  of  her  serfs.  Slavery  in  the 
British  West  Indies  was  abolished  in  1838  at  a  cost  of  $100,- 
000,000  cash  compensation  paid  to  the  masters,  and  other 
European  nations  having  colonial  slaves  had  followed  Eng- 
land's example.  Brazil  and  Cuba  were  both  large  slave-own- 
ing countries;  in  Cuba  one- third  of  the  population  was  at  one 
time  in  slavery;  a  much  larger  proportion  than  in  the  United 
States,  and  yet  in  both  countries  emancipation  was  gradually 
and  peaceably  accomplished  by  legal  methods.  In  Russia  the 
serfs  were  freed  without  bloodshed.  Nowhere  except  in  the 
United  States  was  it  found  necessary  to  make  the  country  a 
shambles  to  accomplish  such  an  inevitable  reform.  To  say 
that  the  American  people  are  so  inferior  in  political  capacity 
to  the  British,  Russians,  Spaniards  and  Brazilians  as  this 
miserable  emancipative  Civil  War  of  ours  would  indicate  is 
preposterous. 

That  the  Civil  War  was  a  politicians'  and  not  a  people's 
war  was  perfectly  apparent  at  the  time  to  all  steady-minded 
folk.  During  its  progress  nothing  was  more  frequent  than  to 
hear  such  people  say  that  the  politicians  were  responsible  for 
it  all.  And  this  was  true.  Had  the  settlement  of  the  matter 
been  left  to  a  committee  of  statesmen  or  business  men  the 
result  would  have  been  that  under  some  system  of  gradual 
emancipation  and  payment  to  the  owners  the  thing  would 
have  been  quietly  done,  and  with  a  great  saving  of  money. 


252      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

X  The  war  cost  at  the  lowest  possible  estimate  twenty  thousand 
millions  of  dollars.  There  were  in  this  country  say  three  mil- 
lions of  slaves  which  at  the  high  figure  of  $500  each  would 
have  cost  not  more  than  fifteen  hundred  millions  of  dollars  or 
less  than  a  twelfth  of  the  cost  of  the  war  in  money,  to  say 
nothing  of  human  lives.  Even  this  cost  would  have  been 
nominal,  since  the  outlay  would  have  been  divided  up  amongst 
our  own  people  and  left  the  nation  not  a  cent  the  poorer. 
But  this  plain  and  sensible  course  could  not  be  adopted  because 
under  our  mobocratic  system  the  question  was  made  one  of 
politics  rather  than  of  statesmanship.  And  when  the  strug- 
gle was  over  were  the  politicians  blamed  or  called  to  account; 
or  was  the  system  condemned  which  produced  them  and  really 
brought  about  the  American  Civil  War?  Not  at  all.  The 
same  humbugs  and  schemers  continued  in  control;  once  more 
they  were  seen  on  political  platforms,  greedy  and  brassy  as 
ever,  bellowing  hypocritical  praise  of  the  victims  of  the  fight 
and  demanding  and  obtaining  continued  offices  and  salaries 
and  perquisites  for  themselves;  and  so  their  course  of  public 
plundering  was  vigorously  continued  and  their  rule  was 
strengthened  year  by  year.  With  one  hand  deep  in  the  public 
chest,  they  waved  the  banner  with  the  other,  and  the  years 
immediately  succeeding  the  Civil  War  were  perhaps  richer 
in  patriotic  platform  oratory  and  in  political  corruption  than 
any  the  country  has  ever  seen. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

FAILURE      AND       CONDEMNATION       OF       MANHOOD       SUFFRAGE 
AFTER 
STATES 


AFTER    A    TEN    YEARS'    EXPERIMENT    IN    THE    SOUTHERN 


PERHAPS  the  most  noted  instance  of  a  complete  test  of  the 
principles  upon  which  manhood  suffrage  claims  to  be  founded 
was  that  made  in  the  Southern  States  during  the  so-called  re- 
construction period  from  1866  to  1876,  when  the  establishment 
by  the  Federal  Government  of  unrestricted  suffrage  in  a  dozen 
states  where  a  considerable  part  of  the  population  was  com- 
posed of  negroes  resulted  in  a  complete  and  even  scandalous 
failure.  It  not  only  failed  in  the  opinion  of  the  world  at  large, 
but  even  in  that  of  most  if  not  all  its  supporters,  and  finally 
had  to  be  abandoned;  so  that  in  all  those  dozen  states  where 
most  of  the  laborers  and  many  of  the  farmers  to  the  number 
of  about  two  millions  of  voters  are  negroes,  they  have  been  for 
the  last  forty  years  and  upwards  excluded  from  the  polls. 

For  the  ten  years,  however,  from  1866  to  1876,  which  was 
the  period  of  the  manhood  suffrage  experiment,  they  were 
permitted  and  urged  to  vote,  under  the  protection  of  the  Fed- 
eral Government.  At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  in  1865,  when 
the  conquered  Southern  States  had  undertaken  to  establish 
state  governments  on  the  basis  of  white  suffrage,  Congress 
and  the  Federal  Government  had  interposed  the  strong  arm 
and  required  negroes  to  be  included  in  the  electorate;  thus 
making  pure  manhood  suffrage  the  foundation  of  the  new 
state  governments.  In  so  doing  the  Federal  Government  was 
logically  right,  upon  any  and  all  of  the  manhood  suffrage 
theories.  On  none  of  them  can  the  negro  vote  be  properly 
rejected.  The  southern  negroes  were  natives  of  the  soil,  free, 

253 


254      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE  UNITED   STATES 

self-supporting,  and  intensely  loyal  to  the  government. 
Whether  you  adopt  the  theory  of  a  natural  right  to  vote,  or 
that  the  ballot  is  a  weapon  of  defence  for  the  poor,  or  that  it 
is  an  educative  force,  or  that  the  desires  of  all  classes  should 
be  represented  in  the  vote,  the  negroes'  claim  to  the  franchise 
was  and  is  well  made  out. 

The  trial  of  manhood  suffrage  that  was  actually  made  in  the 
instance  referred  to  was  in  all  respects  a  fair  and  good  test  of 
its  qualities.  It  was  of  course  a  severe  one,  because  the  ne- 
groes were  very  numerous  and  mostly  very  ignorant;  but  for 
that  very  reason  the  test  was  valuable.  To  ascertain  the  real 
effects  of  ignorance  and  incapacity  as  of  other  elements,  they 
must  be  tried  out  as  far  as  possible  without  dilution  or  mix- 
ture. In  this  instance  the  amount  of  both  that  was  injected 
into  the  body  politic  was  greater  than  the  dose  which  the 
Northern  electorate  has  received,  but  the  effect  pro  tanto  was 
the  same.  The  test  was  unusually  good  for  another  reason, 
namely,  because  it  was  suddenly  applied  and  as  suddenly 
ended,  and  therefore  the  period  of  its  operation  is  distinctly 
separated  from  the  time  before  and  after,  so  that  the  com- 
parison between  the  negro  suffrage  epoch  and  that  of  the  be- 
fore and  after  period  is  clear  and  easily  made.  Again,  the 
trial  was  good  because  it  was  applied  to  large  regions  of 
country,  all  parts  of  which  were  inhabited  by  great  numbers 
of  the  newly  made  voters,  amounting  to  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands in  all;  so  that  merdy  local  causes  could  not  be  said  to 
affect  the  result.  And  further,  the  negroes  were,  generally 
speaking,  illiterate  and  propertyless ;  and  this  circumstance 
also  helped  to  make  the  test  more  clear  and  certain;  for  the 
claim  of  the  extreme  manhood  suffragists  everywhere  is  and 
has  been  that  the  poor  and  lowly  are  above  all  entitled  to  the 
vote. 

So  here  we  have  had  a  trial  in  our  own  country  of  manhood 
suffrage  plain  and  simple;  of  the  much  vaunted  system  ap- 
plied to  a  class  of  people  who  most  needed  the  so-called  up- 
lifting power  or  influence  of  the  ballot.  Here  were  the  negroes, 


THE  TEN  YEARS'  PILLAGE  OF  THE  SOUTH         255 

simple,  poor,  unsophisticated,  unspoiled  by  the  possession  of 
wealth,  the  ideal  people  of  the  radical  orator  and  philosopher. 
They  were  docile  and  religious,  being  nearly  all  evangelical 
Christians;  very  much  under  the  influence  of  their  clergymen; 
intensely  patriotic  and  devoted  to  the  government  and  the 
flag.  In  short  the  southern  negroes  at  the  close  of  the  war, 
as  was  then  pointed  out  by  their  friends,  had  every  quality 
to  entitle  them  to  vote  except  book  learning,  business  experi- 
ence and  property,  neither  of  which  in  the  eyes  of  the  cham- 
pions of  manhood  suffrage  is  essential  to  the  voter.  Other 
conditions  there  were  favorable  to  the  success  of  the  experi- 
ment. The  new  voters  did  not  have  to  construct  a  state,  a  so- 
cial polity,  or  a  code  of  laws,  or  to  establish  public  order.  The 
framework  of  a  well-developed  republican  government  was 
already  erected;  the  statute  books  contained  the  political  wis- 
dom of  a  highly  civilized  and  free  people;  they  had  the  United 
States  government  to  guide  and  encourage  them;  there  was 
perfect  order  everywhere,  and  a  friendly  and  well-disciplined 
army  was  quartered  among  them  to  maintain  it  and  to  protect 
them  in  the  exercise  of  their  rights.  They  had  therefore  that 
guidance,  precedent  and  protection,  the  lack  of  which  has  been 
said  to  have  caused  the  failure  of  similar  attempts  by  peoples 
unpractised  in  self-government.  Besides  all  this,  they  had 
abundance  of  moral' support  and  enthusiastic  sympathy.  At 
that  time  the  Republican  party  organs  claimed  a  monopoly  of 
patriotic  enlightenment,  and  throughout  the  great  North  and 
West  a  large  portion  of  the  most  intelligent  and  vociferous 
American  press,  including  nearly  all  the  Republican  news- 
papers, also  two  thirds  of  the  protestant  clergy,  besides  moral 
and  political  orators  by  the  thousand,  justified  and  applauded 
the  proposal  to  give  the  vote  to  the  late  slaves  then  and  at 
once  without  delay  or  qualification,  and  poured  out  the  slush 
and  uttered  the  gush  appropriate  to  such  agitations.  The  proj- 
ect was  enthusiastically  heralded  as  a  "Reform,"  as  a  "Liberal 
Measure,"  as  an  inevitable  step  in  advance;  as  a  carrying  out 
and  logical  application  of  democratic  doctrines ;  it  was  proudly 


256      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

pointed  to  as  an  evidence  of  our  superiority  in  wisdom  over 
our  ancestors.  The  cry  was  that  the  ballot  is  a  natural  right; 
that  the  republican  legend  is  not  that  some  men,  white  men, 
educated  men,  or  propertied  men  may  vote;  but  that  all  men 
have  an  absolute  right  to  the  suffrage;  a  right  inherent  in 
man  as  man:  and  was  not  the  freedman  a  man  and  a  native 
of  the  soil?  The  ballot,  said  they,  is  a  weapon  of  defense, 
needed  more  by  poor  peasants  and  laborers  be  they  white, 
black  or  brown  than  by  any  other  class.  What  if  the  negroes 
were  ignorant  and  easily  led;  give  them  the  vote  and  they 
would  swiftly  acquire  learning  and  strength  of  character. 
People  talked  as  if  the  ballot  box  was  a  cure-all;  as  if  there 
was  a  sort  of  magic  in  it;  as  if  merely  to  handle  it  was  sal- 
vation; without  it,  said  they,  man  is  still  a  slave  and  can 
never  be  expected  to  improve;  nor  can  the  community  rise 
while  he  is  "disfranchised"  as  they  expressed  it;  but  with  the 
ballot  in  hand  he  will  at  once  mount  to  meet  his  opportunities. 
This  arrant  nonsense  has  been  recently  made  familiar  to  us 
by  the  woman  suffragists  and  need  not  be  further  recapitu- 
lated. 

The  negroes  were  thereupon  invited  to  go  through  all  the 
performances  in  which  the  white  masses  had  long  been  accus- 
tomed to  display  themselves;  and,  as  a  Chinaman  once  said, 
to  exercise  their  ignorance.  They,  and  especially  the  fools  and 
idlers  among  them,  responded  with  alacrity.  They  talked 
politics  at  great  length;  those  who  could  read  fed  their  minds 
with  newspaper  rubbish;  they  attended  political  meetings  ad- 
dressed by  frothy  orators  and  office  seekers  just  as  many  white 
people  do,  and  like  them  they  fell  under  the  leadership  of 
designing  demagogues  some  of  whom  speedily  learned  to  be 
competent  rivals  in  rascality  to  many  white  politicians.  Of 
course  the  colored  peoples'  political  orators  were  of  a  new 
crop;  the  old-fashioned  pretentious  white  humbugs  who  had 
deceived  and  tongue  lashed  the  southern  people  into  a  heart- 
less and  hopeless  insurrection  were  out  of  the  running,  or, 
driven  to  the  side  of  the  dismayed  and  discouraged  conserva- 


THE  TEN  YEARS*  PILLAGE  OF  THE  SOUTH  257 

tives,  stood  hungrily  envying  the  luck  of  their  late  servants. 
In  vain  the  better  class  of  the  whites  protested  against  the 
prospect  of  being  squeezed  by  this  new  and  ignorant  democ- 
racy out  of  whatever  the  war  had  left  them;  their  protests 
were  received  with  derision  by  the  radical  and  enlightened 
North.  They  and  their  minority  of  conservative  northern 
sympathizers  were  stigmatized  as  would-be  autocrats,  aristo- 
crats, oppressors  of  the  poor;  old  time  Bourbons  unable  to 
grasp  new  ideas;  this  and  that  piece  of  wisdom  had  not 
"dawned"  on  them;  with  their  antiquated  brains  they  could 
not  realize  the  beauty  and  power  of  true  democracy  carried 
to  the  limit,  etc.  The  controversy  between  the  southern  whites 
and  the  new  colored  democracy  was  given  great  prominence 
in  excited  political  discussions  all  over  the  country;  in  most 
states  the  general  elections  were  made  to  turn  upon  this  ques- 
tion; all  the  sentimental  "highbrows"  and  the  same  class  of 
emotionalists  and  enthusiasts  who  are  now  advocating  woman 
suffrage  were  then  supporting  negro  suffrage;  to  oppose  it  was 
to  be  ignorant  or  antiquated.  The  friends  of  unlimited 
suffrage  carried  state  after  state  in  the  North  and  West  by 
majorities  far  exceeding  those  since  recorded  in  favor  of 
woman  suffrage,  and  the  negro  was  by  Federal  authority  given 
the  vote  in  every  southern  state. 

The  first  elections,  of  course,  went  off  successfully;  nothing 
x  is  easier  or  requires  less  intelligence  than  to  cast  a  ballot;  a 
\hild  of  ten  years  can  be  taught  the  trick  in  an  hour.  The  ne- 
groes voted  in  great  numbers ;  and  the  cry  went  up  from  pulpits 
and  other  mouthpieces  of  American  super-intelligence,  from 
newspaper  offices  and  political  platforms,  "Behold  one  more 
"triumph  for  universal  suffrage!"  That  is  what  they  called  it, 
for  at  that  time  the  notion  of  giving  the  vote  to  negresses  had 
not  become  popular.  That  is  a  later  fad  reserved  for  our 
day;  the  great  American  people  usually  amuses  itself  with  but 
one  political  folly  at  a  time.  The  negro  had  shown  himself 
to  be  a  qualified  voter  according  to  the  only  recognized  test, 
namely,  ability  to  talk  and  to  vote  in  droves  under  leadership. 


258      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE  UNITED   STATES 

As  for  office-holding  capacity  it  is  and  always  has  been  a 
fact  that  uncultivated  men,  white  or  black,  usually  apply  and 
can  apply  but  one  test  to  a  political  candidate;  that  of  elo- 
quence. If  he  has  but  a  winning  tongue  most  of  them  consider 
him  competent  for  any  office  no  matter  how  difficult  its  duties. 
The  colored  people  produced  men  of  their  race  who  readily 
reached  the  standard  of  glibness  and  who  made  political 
speeches  which  charmed  and  convinced  even  white  audiences 
of  a  certain  shallow  and  emotional  type.  Just  as  women  have 
been  found  who  can  compare  favorably  with  men  in  platform 
ranting,  so  were  negro  politicians  found  who,  gifted  with  flu- 
ency, filled  with  vanity  and  stimulated  by  applause  showed 
themselves  equal  or  nearly  equal  to  white  demagogues  in  that 
fascinating  art.  And  thus  the  champions  of  universal  suffrage 
were  able  in  1868  to  point  triumphantly  to  succcessful 
southern  political  campaigns  conducted  to  a  considerable  ex- 
tent by  colored  men  who  passed  all  the  tests  nowadays  applied 
by  a  white  democracy  in  a  similar  case;  the  leaders  talked  and 
orated  fluently  and  the  masses  voted  for  them  in  droves  as 
slavish  and  unquestioning  as  the  best  trained  white  voters. 
And  so  the  black  leaders  got  into  office  and  at  once  began  the 
customary  idle  and  dishonest  career  of  the  professional  place 
hunter. 

The  result  is  told  in  one  of  the  darkest  chapters  in  American 
history.  Many  white  friends  and  champions  of  the  colored 
race  went  south  to  aid  them  in  their  political  life,  but  the  case 
was  hopeless  from  the  start.  The  negro  level  of  intelligence 
and  honesty  was  so  low,  and  the  business  experience  of  the 
voters  so  small,  that  even  their  very  ablest  representatives 
would  have  been  sadly  deficient  in  the  primary  qualities  nec- 
essary for  legislation  and  administration;  but  as  is  inevitable 
under  the  system  of  universal  suffrage,  the  worst  were  often 
chosen  at  the  polls.  The  men  elected  to  the  state  legislatures 
in  the  South  under  this  regime  were  often  ignorant,  drunken, 
debauched  and  dishonest.  Many  of  them  were  without  means, 
had  never  paid  taxes  and  were  incapable  of  measuring  the 


THE  TEN  YEARS'  PILLAGE  OF  THE  SOUTH  259 

value  of  money,  or  of  understanding  financial  dealings.  All 
the  Southern  States  had  suffered  severely  during  the  Civil 
War;  most  of  them  were  so  financially  exhausted  as  to  be 
deserving  of  real  sympathy,  but  the  new  gang  of  black  and 
white  scallawags  was  pitiless.  Waste,  peculation,  folly  and 
every  form  of  misgovernment  followed;  public  credit  was  de- 
stroyed, property  values  fell;  there  were  ten  wretched  years 
of  violence,  scandals  and  shame,  at  the  end  of  which  negro 
suffrage  had  disappeared,  abandoned  even  by  its  strongest  sup- 
porters. As  soon  as  it  was  gone  a  sound  reaction  began,  public 
credit  was  restored,  values  increased,  public  waste  and  robbery 
diminished,  political  scandals  became  fewer  and  less  flagrant, 
and  the  South  entered  at  once  upon  a  career  of  comparative 
prosperity  in  which  it  has  continued  to  this  day.  Such  misgov- 
ernment as  still  continues  in  the  South  is  mild  compared  with 
the  experience  of  those  ten  dreadful  years  of  negro  domination. 
Let  us  for  a  moment  refer  to  the  recorded  testimony  con- 
cerning this  remarkable  episode  in  the  history  of  manhood 
suffrage  in  this  country.  The  historian  Lecky  says: 

"Then  followed,  under  the  protection  of  the  Northern  bayonets, 
a  grotesque  parody  of  government,  a  hideous  orgy  of  anarchy,  vio- 
lence, unrestrained  corruption,  undisguised,  ostentatious,  insulting 
robbery,  such  as  the  world  had  scarcely  ever  seen.  The  State  debts 
were  profusely  piled  up.  Legislation  was  openly  put  up  for  sale. 
The  "Bosses"  were  all  in  their  glory,  and  they  were  abundantly  re- 
warded, while  the  crushed,  ruined,  plundered  whites  combined  in 
secret  societies  for  their  defense,  and  retaliated  on  their  oppressors 
by  innumerable  acts  of  savage  vengeance."  (Democracy  and  Lib- 
erty, Vol.  I,  p.  94.) 

Senator  Tillman  of  South  Carolina,  who  lived  in  the  midst 
of  it,  described  the  result  as  a  "government  of  carpet-baggers 
"and  thieves  and  scalawags  and  scoundrels  who  had  stolen 
"everything  in  sight  and  mortgaged  posterity;  who  had  run 
"their  felonious  paws  into  the  pockets  of  posterity  by  issuing 
"bonds." 


26O      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

From  another  writer: 

"When  installed  in  power  the  negroes  and  their  white  mentors 
indulged  in  an  unprecedented  robbery  of  the  public  purse.  They 
made  the  legislatures  issue  bonds  on  the  state  to  provide  for  public 
works  which  were  never  taken  in  hand,  and  shared  the  proceeds 
among  themselves,  leaving  the  taxpayers  to  submit  to  fresh  tax- 
ation ;  they  openly  passed  fraudulent  disbursements  or  swelled  the  ex- 
penses incurred  for  furnishing  offices,  etc.,  in  the  wildest  fashion, 
fitting  them  up,  for  instance,  with  clocks  at  $480  apiece,  with 
chandeliers  at  $650.  The  official  positions  were  distributed  among 
illiterates;  in  one  state  there  were  more  than  two  hundred  negro 
magistrates  unable  to  read  or  write;  justice  was  openly  bought  and 
sold."  (Ostrogorski  on  Democracy,  p.  56.) 

A  few  of  the  details  are  as  follows:  In  Mississippi  the 
yearly  expenditures  trebled;  the  state  debt  was  greatly  in- 
creased, the  actual  figures  have  been  disputed;  the  tax  levy 
was  multiplied  by  fourteen.  In  1866  the  State  Treasurer  em- 
bezzled $61,962.  The  state  librarian  is  believed  to  have 
stolen  books  from  the  state  library.  In  South  Carolina  upon 
the  inauguration  of  manhood  suffrage,  there  followed,  says  the 
Encyclopedia  Britannica,  "an  orgy  of  crime  and  corruption."  A 
bar  and  restaurant  was  annexed  to  the  legislative  chambers, 
free  to  the  members  and  their  friends;  in  place  of  the  plain 
furniture  placed  there  by  the  South  Carolina  aristocracy,  con- 
sisting of  $5  clocks  and  $10  benches,  there  were  installed  by 
the  representatives  of  the  working  people  of  the  state  sofas 
at  $200  each  on  which  the  black  and  white  legislators  might 
loll  and  repose,  and  clocks  at  $600  each,  for  those  capable  of 
reading  time.  In  one  session  $95,000  and  in  four  years 
$200,000  was  appropriated  for  State  House  furniture.  When 
the  orgy  was  over  a  few  years  later,  the  whole  lot  was  valued 
at  less  than  $18,000.  In  eight  years  the  printing  ring  stole 
or  squandered  over  $150,000  of  state  money.  Enormous 
sums  were  obtained  by  means  of  fraudulent  pay  certificates 
issued  under  legislative  authority.  In  the  four  years  from 
1868  to  1872  the  state  debt  increased  from  less  than  $7,000- 


THE  TEN  YEARS'  PILLAGE  OF  THE  SOUTH  261 

ooo  to  an  unknown  sum,  of  which  over  $18,000,000  was  actual 
and  evidenced  by  written  obligations,  to  which  might  be  added 
about  $10,000,000  more,  clearly  fraudulent  and  contingent  on 
the  continuance  in  power  of  the  plunderers.  It  may  be  said 
that  all  of  this  increase  beyond  the  original  $7,000,000  repre- 
sented waste  and  theft.  A  large  part  of  this  debt  was  after- 
wards repudiated.  In  Florida  $600,000  in  taxes  was  collected 
and  embezzled  by  the  collectors  and  the  treasury  was  swept 
absolutely  bare.  Legislative  expenses  were  quadrupled,  state 
taxes  increased  eight- fold;  in  the  four  years  from  1868  to 
1872  the  state  debt  mounted  from  $4,000,000  to  $12,000,000. 
In  Tennessee  the  state  debt  rose  from  $16,000,000  to  $42,000- 
ooo.  In  Arkansas  land  taxes  were  increased  ten-fold  and  state 
expenses  twelve-fold  in  eight  years.  Of  over  $7,000,000  ex- 
pended by  the  state  in  six  years,  the  greater  part  was  squan- 
dered; only  $100,000  was  spent  for  public  improvements.  A 
bonded  debt  of  $10,000,000  was  fraudulently  created  and  the 
money  wasted  on  pretence  of  paying  for  buildings  and  rail- 
roads which  were  never  constructed.  In  Georgia  the  state  debt 
was  increased  from  $6,000,000  to  $18,000,000  in  three  years 
without  any  benefit  whatever.  In  Alabama  members  publicly 
boasted  of  receiving  large  sums  for  passing  measures.  The 
state  debt  increased  from  $8,000,000  to  $25,000,000  in  two 
years.  The  value  of  land  fell  from  $50  an  acre  to  between  $3 
and  $15  an  acre.  In  Louisiana  two  hundred  new  offices  were 
created;  the  public  debt  in  two  years  jumped  from  $7,000,000 
to  $41,000,000.  In  four  years  state  and  city  government 
expenses  increased  to  ten  times  their  normal  volume;  taxation 
was  enormously  increased,  and  about  $54,000,000  of  debt  cre- 
ated with  nothing  to  show  for  it.  "In  North  Carolina,"  says 
the  Encyclopedia  Britannka,  "the  government  established 
"in  accordance  with  the  views  of  Congress  in  1868  was  corrupt, 
"inefficient  and  tyrannical."  The  state  debt  was  increased  in  a 
few  years  from  $16,000,000  to  $42,000,000  and  the  proceeds 
wasted.  In  Texas  the  extravagance  of  the  reconstruction 
period  caused  a  debt  of  $4,700,000.  In  all  these  states  salaries 


262      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

and  miscellaneous  expenses  were  enormously  increased  during 
this  episode.  Crime  was  unpunished,  pardons  were  bought  and 
sold  and  bribery  of  public  officials  was  notorious.  At  the  close 
of  the  manhood  suffrage  rule  nine  southern  states  were  unable 
to  pay  their  debts,  amounting  in  all  to  about  $170,000,000  and 
had  to  repudiate  them.  This  is  not  extraordinary  when  we 
consider  that  these  states  had  been  stripped  by  the  war  of  all 
property  but  land,  and  that  in  seven  of  them  the  increase  of 
state  debts  ranged  from  $35  to  $94  per  capita  inhabitant.  A 
New  York  state  debt  of  $940,000,000  in  1918  would  corre- 
spond in  figures  with  what  was  saddled  on  poor  Louisiana  in 
1872;  but  in  order  to  express  its  relative  weight,  considering 
the  date  and  the  value  of  money  and  the  wealth  of  the  state, 
it  would  have  to  be  multiplied  at  least  five  times.  Imagine  a 
New  York  state  debt  of  $4,700,000,000.  It  seems  an 
impossible  misfortune,  but  granted  an  illiterate  population 
and  we  might  reasonably  expect  such  a  result  in  about  ten 
years'  time,  under  a  system  of  universal  suffrage. 

The  attempt  to  establish  manhood  suffrage  in  the  South  by 
means  of  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  was  a  crime.  The  amend- 
ment itself  is  founded  upon  a  palpably  false  conception.  In 
effect  it  provides  that  the  right  of  colored  citizens  of  the  United 
States  to  vote  shall  not  be  denied  or  abridged  by  any  state. 
It  amounts  to  a  solemn  declaration  that  there  are  no  inferior 
races  and  that  a  voter  does  not  need  intelligence.  It  proposes 
to  establish  a  government  to  be  called  civilized  where  the  igno- 
rant shall  govern  the  intelligent;  the  inferior  shall  govern  the 
superior;  poverty  shall  rule  wealth;  the  pyramid  shall  stand 
on  its  apex.  It  turns  the  democratic  movement  into  a  back- 
ward march;  assuming  to  speak  for  democracy,  it  declares  it 
an  enemy  of  civilization;  it  flouts  the  wisdom  of  science;  it 
overrules  the  Creator,  who  created  five  races  of  men  funda- 
mentally different  in  capacity.  To  attempt  this  was  a  crime 
and  not  the  less  but  the  more  so  because  done  through  a  sham 
legality.  As  already  shown  in  these  pages,  a  law  passed  in 
contravention  of  civilization,  in  opposition  to  the  canons  of 


THE  TEN  YEARS'  PILLAGE  OF  THE  SOUTH  263 

Society  is  no  law,  and  therefore  the  old  statutes  authorizing 
the  tortures  of  the  Inquisition,  the  execution  of  witches  and  the 
rendition  by  free  peoples  of  fugitive  slaves  to  their  masters 
were  illegal  and  void,  and  disobedience  thereto  was  a  virtue. 
The  Abolitionists  were  fond  of  denouncing  the  Constitution  as 
a  covenant  with  hell ;  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  was  a  compact 
with  rascality,  entered  into  at  the  command  of  passion  and 
party  advantage  rather  than  of  cool  reason  and  patriotism.  It 
was  possible  because  the  long  regime  of  political  corruption 
had  demoralized  the  best  of  the  party  leaders;  they  had  grown 
accustomed  to  quackery  and  demagogism  and  a  corrupt  use  of 
the  spoils  of  office  to  control  elections  and  government,  and 
they  found  it  easy  to  apply  these  means  to  the  problem  of  the 
government  of  the  conquered  Southern  States,  with  the  object 
of  party  gain.  But  they  never  would  have  dared  to  do  the 
deed  had  the  way  not  been  first  prepared  by  the  spread  of  the 
false  doctrine  that  every  man  has  a  natural  right  to  a  vote. 
Thus  once  more  we  have  the  lesson  of  the  ultimate  costliness 
of  lying  and  false  logic. 

Nor  has  the  evil  passed  away  with  the  practical  nullification 
of  the  amendment.  One  of  the  most  mischievous  of  all  shams 
is  a  sham  law.  The  Fifteenth  Amendment,  which  our  man- 
hood suffrage  politicians  are  too  cowardly  to  repeal,  has  still  a 
place  in  the  Constitution,  a  sham  law,  a  dead  carcass,  breeding 
disease  and  pestilence.  This  is  plain  to  the  student  of  Ameri- 
can politics,  though  millions  of  American  voters  are  too  igno- 
rant to  recognize  it  and  too  irresponsible  to  care.  For  over 
forty-three  years  this  amendment  has  been  by  eleven  southern 
states  openly  flouted  and  defied  because  its  enforcement  would 
mean  negro  domination  and  a  relapse  into  barbarism.  The 
nullification  of  any  existing  law,  and  above  all  of  a  constitu- 
tional provision,  is  demoralizing  to  the  nation;  but  in  this  case 
not  only  the  fact  of  its  nullification  has  been  demoralizing,  but 
the  manner  in  which  it  was  done ;  by  methods  admittedly  evil 
in  themselves,  by  violence,  electoral  trickery,  theft  of  and  tam- 
pering with  ballot  boxes,  falsification  and  the  use  of  fraudulent, 


264      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

technical  and  tricky  law  and  procedure.  There  were  probably 
850,000  adult  negro  citizens  in  the  southern  states  in  1870, 
of  whom  all  but  about  50,000  were  ultimately  disfranchised 
by  these  means,  and  by  methods  still  in  effectual  operation.  It 
is  difficult  to  say  which  has  been  more  scandalous,  the  enact- 
ment of  the  amendment  by  its  friends,  or  the  method  of  its 
nullification  by  its  enemies.  Nor  is  this  the  whole  story  of  this 
shameful  business.  The  net  result  has  been  and  is  to  deprive 
a  dozen  southern  states,  say  one-quarter  of  the  Union,  of 
all  proper  share  and  interest  in  Federal  politics.  This  comes 
about  because  while  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  stands  the 
South  feels  that  there  is  danger  of  its  enforcement  by  the  Re- 
publican party;  a  fear  encouraged  by  the  weak  hypocrisy  of 
the  blatant  northern  Republican  politicians  who  pretend  to 
believe  in  manhood  suffrage  and  by  the  warnings  of  the 
blatant  southern  Democratic  politicians  who  also  pretend  to 
believe  in  its  imminence.  The  southern  whites,  therefore, 
have  for  over  forty  years  voted,  and  still  vote,  en  masse,  the 
Democratic  ticket  for  Congress  and  the  president  irrespective 
of  all  questions  of  Federal  statesmanship.  It  is  a  most  de- 
plorable state  of  things,  tending  to  corruption  in  one  party, 
to  partisanship  in  the  other,  and  to  confusion  all  around.  Hence 
the  "Solid  South."  Be  the  question  one  of  war  or  peace,  high 
or  low  tariff,  colonial  expansion,  internal  improvement,  civil 
service  betterment  or  any  other  important  question,  the  vote 
of  the  "Solid  South,"  instead  of  expressing  the  opinion  of  the 
southern  people  merely  voices  a  negative  to  the  Fifteenth 
Amendment. 

The  result  is  practical  disfranchisement,  north  and  south. 
The  total  vote  in  Louisiana,  Mississippi  and  South  Carolina 
fell  from  492,357  in  1876  to  177,822  in  1900.  Allowing  for 
the  increase  in  population,  it  should  have  been  about  690,000, 
evidencing  an  extinguishment  of  three-fourths,  by  fraud,  ter- 
ror, or  discouragement.  In  South  Carolina  the  Republican 
vote,  mostly  colored,  fell  from  91,780  in  1876,  to  3,963  in 
1908.  In  1910  the  vote  for  congressmen  in  proportion  to 


THE  TEN  YEARS'  PILLAGE  OF  THE  SOUTH  265 

the  population  was  in  Massachusetts  one  to  eight;  in  South 
Carolina  one  to  fifty;  in  Mississippi  one  to  seventy-five.  A 
population  equal  to  that  which  provided  a  hundred  votes  in 
Massachusetts,  provided  no  more  than  sixteen  in  South  Caro- 
lina and  eleven  in  Mississippi.  Allowing  the  negroes  as  a 
rough  estimate  half  the  population,  we  find  that  thirty-four 
white  men  in  one  hundred  refrained  from  voting  in  Mississippi. 
These  whites  were  not  actually  forbidden  to  vote,  but  they 
were  practically  disfranchised  by  a  system  of  solid  Democratic 
representation  which  made  voting  a  useless  ceremony.  The 
menace  of  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  is  such  that  only  one 
party  can  exist  in  the  Southern  States.  In  the  present  Congress 
every  single  member  in  both  the  Senate  and  the  House  from 
the  States  of  Alabama,  Arkansas,  Florida,  Georgia,  Louisiana, 
Mississippi,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina  and  Texas,  is  a 
Democrat  and  from  Virginia  there  is  but  one  Republican  mem- 
ber. And  so  it  comes  about  that  a  constitutional  measure  pre- 
tended to  be  enacted  to  enfranchise  the  blacks  not  only  com- 
pletely fails  of  that  intent,  but  results  in  partly  disfranchising 
the  whites  both  north  and  south.  The  southern  white  voter  is 
disfranchised  because  he  is  practically  prevented  from  making 
a  free  choice  between  candidates;  the  northern  white  voter  is 
practically  disfranchised  wherever  a  Republican  measure  which 
he  favors  is  defeated  without  consideration  of  its  merits  by 
southern  votes  cast  against  him  under  this  arbitrary  pressure. 
There  are  about  twenty  million  white  people  in  eleven  southern 
states  who  are  thus  misrepresented  and  held  in  political  bondage 
owing  to  the  enactment  of  the  Fifteenth  Amendment 
by  manhood  suffrage  fanaticism  and  stupidity.  Assuming  that 
these  people,  if  liberated  from  the  fear  of  the  brutal  regime  of 
manhood  suffrage  with  which  they  are  threatened,  would  di- 
vide about  equally  in  politics  like  their  northern  fellow  citi- 
zens, and  we  have  say  ten  millions  of  northern  people,  and 
about  two  millions  of  male  northern  voters  who  are  practically 
disfranchised;  their  votes  being  nullified  by  the  blind  vote  of 
these  eleven  southern  states.  The  existence  of  this  condition 


266      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

of  affairs  is  well  recognized  by  lawyers  and  statesmen.  Says  one 
writer,  "The  indifference  to  political  interests  and  responsibili- 
ties which  such  conditions  produce  is  a  serious  menace  to  the 
"progress  of  the  south  and  to  that  of  the  country  as  well." 
(Appleton's  Cyclopedia;  American  Government,  Suffrage.) 

Such  in  brief  is  the  story  of  the  results  and  reactions  of  the 
attempt  made  a  generation  ago  with  great  power  and  with  all 
the  seriousness  of  fanaticism,  to  put  into  actual  effect  in  our 
Southern  States  the  silly  doctrine  of  the  political  equality  of 
all  men.  The  lesson  and  the  conclusion  are  alike  plain  and  unde- 
niable. No  sensible  white  man  is  now  heard  to  urge  that  the 
pauper  southern  negroes  be  once  more  invited  to  take  part  in 
our  political  life.  And  yet,  if  there  be  truth  in  the  theory 
that  every  man  is  entitled  to  a  vote,  no  matter  how  humble, 
then  the  disfranchisement  of  the  southern  negro  is  a  foul  in- 
justice, for  which  the  whole  American  people  are  responsible, 
since  they  all  acquiesce  in  it.  But  there  is  no  truth  in  it. 
The  mass  of  negroes  are  properly  excluded  from  voting 
in  the  South,  because  as  a  class  they  lack  the  training, 
experience  and  temperament  necessary  to  a  proper  exer- 
cise of  the  suffrage.  All  this  seemed  perfectly  plain 
from  the  beginning;  and  yet  it  was  only  after  a  long  and  severe 
political  agitation,  accompanied  by  violence  and  bloodshed, 
that  the  South  got  rid  of  its  rotten  manhood  suffrage  govern- 
ments; and  it  will  take  time  and  much  talk  to  bring  the 
American  people  to  the  point  where  they  will  feel  compelled 
to  apply  to  the  ignorant  and  shiftless  whites  the  principle  then 
so  fully  illustrated,  tried  out  and  verified,  that  the  suffrage  is 
a  function  of  government  and  cannot  safely  or  justly  be  con- 
ferred on  any  class  which  is  morally  or  mentally  incompetent 
to  perform  it. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  EFFECT  OF  MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  IS  TO  ENSURE  INEFFI- 
CIENCY IN  DOMESTIC  LEGISLATION  AND  ADMINISTRA- 
TION. 

IT  is  expressing  oneself  very  mildly  to  say  that  manhood 
suffrage  produces  inefficiency;  rather  one  may  say  that  in- 
efficiency is  of  its  very  essence.  Preparedness  is  a  major  es- 
sential of  the  management  of  our  successful  business 
enterprises,  while  unpreparedness  is  a  characteristic  feature 
of  our  government  administration.  To  take  a  concrete  and 
conceded  instance.  The  Spanish  war  of  1898  found  us  totally 
unprepared  for  war;  without  guns,  powder,  artillery,  trans- 
ports or  officers  trained  for  high  command.  (Alger,  Spanish- 
American  War,  p.  455.)  Our  troops  in  that  war  were  not 
properly  equipped,  rationed  or  cared  for.  The  cause,  says 
Stickney,  was  "the  wholesale  fraud  and  corruption  which 
"then  permeated  the  entire  administrative  force  in  Wash- 
"ington.  That  fraud  and  corruption  still  continue  in  full 
"force."  In  the  New  York  Sun  of  February  ;th,  1920,  the  lead- 
ing editorial  was  on  American  want  of  preparedness.  The 
writer  said,  "We  are  a  people  who  will  not  practice  prepared- 
"ness.  We  did  not  prepare  for  war,  we  did  not  prepare  for 
"peace.  We  have  never  prepared  for  anything.  But  sooner  or 
"later  the  man  that  will  not  prepare  must  be  damned."  This 
well-recognized  want  of  foresight  in  national  matters  is  not 
an  American  failing;  it  is  entirely  due  to  the  manhood  suf- 
frage habit  of  voting  into  responsible  positions  men  of  in- 
trigue and  oratory  instead  of  men  of  business.  Says  Reemelin, 
"There  is  not  a  bank,  a  factory,  a  store  or  a  farm,  which  if 
"managed  on  the  basis  of  American  government  would  not  im- 
poverish its  owner."  (American  Politics,  1881,  p.  324.) 

267 


268      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

In  every  department  of  human  activity,  including  govern- 
ment, the  chief  desideratum  is  efficiency.  In  the  primary 
struggle  for  a  bare  existence,  it  is  efficiency  that  wins.  The 
first  and  principal  enemy  of  man  is  Nature;  her  wildness  and 
inclemency  must  first  be  overcome,  and  food,  shelter  and 
clothing  be  forced  from  her  bosom  at  the  price  of  an  endless 
and  ceaseless  vigilance.  As  human  society  grows  older  the 
efficiency  which  comes  of  systematic  training  becomes  more 
essential  to  its  maintenance.  People  may  doubt  whether  the 
world  improves  or  whether  human  existence  becomes  more 
precious  and  enjoyable  with  the  passing  of  time,  but  no  one 
can  doubt  that  life  is  growing  more  complicated  every  year. 
The  increase  of  population,  the  achievements  of  invention,  the 
growth  of  knowledge  of  our  environment,  and  the  cultivation 
of  new  tastes  and  desires  have  all  tended  and  are  tending  with 
accumulated  force  to  make  life  more  difficult  for  the  unin- 
structed  and  to  increase  the  necessity  for  scientific  thinking 
and  acting  in  dealing  with  new  problems.  As  stated  by  Mr. 
Lowell  the  specialization  of  occupations  is  brought  about  by 
complexity  of  civilization,  growth  of  accurate  knowledge,  prog- 
ress of  invention  and  the  keenness  of  competition.  A  few 
years  ago  a  private  citizen  could  take  up  a  new  business  with- 
out prior  preparation;  he  can  no  longer  safely  do  so.  The 
use  of  experts  is  increasing  in  business  concerns  and  industrial 
enterprises.  Universities  are  erecting  new  specialized  depart- 
ments. Sixty  years  ago  there  was  scarcely  a  school  of  engi- 
neers in  the  country;  to-day  there  are  many  of  them.  The 
inexorable  rule  of  the  tendency  of  the  fittest  to  survive  is  still 
an  active  force  in  the  world,  and  the  recent  struggle  with  Ger- 
many gave  terrible  warning  that  efficiency  is  more  than  ever 
the  price  of  existence. 

Next  to  the  struggle  with  wild  Nature  comes  the  contest 
with  human  disorder  and  the  necessity  for  government,  in 
order  that  men  may  best  secure  and  enjoy  the  spoils  and  fruits 
achieved  from  Nature;  and  again  efficiency  is  the  essential 
quality.  We  hear  much  these  days  about  moral  force;  but 


INEFFICIENCY  IN  DOMESTIC  AFFAIRS  269 

there  is  no  force  but  material  force;  what  is  usually  meant  by 
moral  force  is  the  influence  of  moral  ideas  directing  action, 
for  without  efficient  action,  moral  ideas  will  be  fruitless.  They 
will  not  make  crops  grow  nor  cause  a  machine  to  operate,  nor 
check  the  deadly  velocity  of  a  volley  of  musketry,  nor  save  a 
sinking  ship,  nor  check  a  conflagration;  moral  force  will  not 
win  a  battle,  a  campaign  or  a  war,  nor  save  a  nation.  Combe 
in  his  Constitution  of  Man,  long  ago  pointed  out  that  a 
pirate  in  a  good  sea-going  ship  was  safer  than  a  missionary  in 
an  unseaworthy  one.  Moral  ideas  may  serve  to  give  action 
a  right  direction;  but  training  and  force  are  necessary  to  make 
it  effective;  without  training  in  action  and  a  proper  supply  of 
material  force,  the  moral  ideas  will  never  be  manifested  at 
all  to  our  senses,  and  therefore  efficiency  in  action  is  the  final 
object  of  all  practical  teaching,  and  the  true  test  of  good  gov- 
ernment. Governmental  efficiency  means  good  order;  wise 
legislation;  foresight  in  public  affairs;  the  proper  selection  of 
work  to  be  done;  the  doing  it  well  and  expeditiously;  speedy 
and  impartial  justice;  good  home  administration  generally  and 
wisdom  and  firmness  in  foreign  relations.  It  is  difficult  to 
see  how  a  government  which  is  efficient  can  be  bad,  or  one 
which  is  inefficient  can  be  good.  In  fact,  efficiency  makes 
more  for  human  happiness  than  any  other  governmental 
quality.  The  ultimate  object  of  the  creation  of  the  Federal 
Union  was  to  secure  increased  efficiency  in  government.  The 
old  Confederation  had  been  inefficient  and  was  justly  con- 
demned and  abolished;  and  the  present  Federal  government 
was  therefore  established  with  powers  as  stated  in  the  Con- 
stitution to  levy  and  carry  on  war,  to  control  and  promote 
commerce,  to  establish  and  sustain  postal  facilities  and  a  na- 
tional coinage  and  to  secure  peace  with  foreign  nations;  all 
of  which  purposes  might  be  included  in  the  phrase  "national 
efficiency." 

In  an  address  delivered  at  Chicago,  January  i2th,  1918,  by 
Otto  H.  Kahn,  a  patriotic  and  far-sighted  New  York  business 
man  familiar  with  German  methods,  he  truly  said: 


27O      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

"One  of  the  main  reasons  for  Germany's  remarkable  develop- 
ment in  peace  and  amazing  power  of  resistance  in  war,  is  the  way 
she  has  dealt  with  the  complex  and  difficult  problems  of  economic, 
commercial  and  fiscal  policy.  She  recognized,  long  since,  that  such 
problems  cannot  be  successfully  handled  haphazardly  or  in  town- 
meeting  fashion,  or  emotionally;  still  less  can  they  be  made  the 
football  of  politics.  The  German  way  has  been  to  turn  such  mat- 
ters over  for  study  and  report  to  those  best  qualified  by  experience 
and  training,  and  thus  having  obtained  expert  advice  to  respect 
it  and  in  its  large  outlines  to  follow  it.  And  appointments  to 
office  are  made  not  on  a  basis  of  political  affiliations  or  personal 
friendship  or  social  sympathies,  but  for  experience  and  tested 
fitness." 

He  is  right,  and  it  is  a  well-recognized  fact  that  German 
efficiency  in  the  late  war  enabled  her  to  make  head  for  over 
three  years  against  the  most  powerful  combination  of  modern 
times. 

Consider  the  vast  importance  of  the  work  of  our  own  Con- 
gress and  of  our  state  legislatures.  Think  of  what  is  com- 
mitted to  the  charge  of  these  bodies;  reflect  for  a  moment  on 
the  importance  of  our  state  affairs;  our  harbors,  canals,  rail- 
roads, highways,  schools,  colleges,  courts  of  justice,  penal  and 
charitable  institutions,  public  utilities,  all  the  manifold  com- 
mercial, political  and  criminal  legislation  of  the  State;  and 
then  glance  at  the  immense  fields  of  Congressional  authority: 
the  power  of  declaring  war  and  making  treaties;  the  main- 
tenance and  support  of  the  army  and  navy;  foreign  affairs, 
tariffs;  interstate  railroads;  the  post-office;  the  federal  courts 
of  justice.  The  human  mind  is  appalled  at  the  magnitude  of 
the  task  of  properly  governing  the  enormous  population  and 
of  safeguarding  the  immense  wealth  and  interests  of  the  United 
States.  The  future  political  existence  of  the  country  and  its 
status  as  a  nation  may  and  very  probably  will  depend  on  the 
capacity  and  ability  of  its  legislators  and  administrators.  Yet 
but  few  voters  realize  the  necessity  of  business  experience  and 
of  technical  knowledge  to  members  of  the  state  or  national 


INEFFICIENCY  IN  DOMESTIC  AFFAIRS  271 

legislatures.  It  is  not  sufficiently  considered  that  by  far  the 
greater  part  of  legislative  work  is  made  up  of  strictly  business 
matters  requiring  special  knowledge.  Take  for  instance  one 
item  of  Federal  legislation,  namely,  that  relating  to  the  admin- 
istration of  200,000  square  miles  of  timbered  land  owned  by 
the  United  States  government  —  an  area  equal  to  France  — 
where  the  people  dwelling  or  operating  in  the  lower  regions  de- 
rive their  water  from  wooded  uplands:  and  also  relating  to 
another  area  of  100,000,000  acres  or  150,000  square  miles  con- 
taining petroleum,  coal  and  other  minerals.  In  these  two  tracts 
"The  government  will  henceforth  be  selling  standing  timber  to 
"lumbermen,  water  power  for  electrical  transmission,  water  for 
"irrigation  rights,  and  oil,  coal,  and  mineral  privileges,  on  an 
"ever-increasing  scale  of  magnitude;  while  it  will  rent  grazing 
"lands  equal  in  extent  to  the  greater  part  of  the  country  east 
"of  the  Mississippi  River."  (Shaw  on  Political  Problems, 
p.  114.) 

This  case  is  not  exceptional  in  Congress  as  may  be  seen 
by  the  following  list,  which  includes  all  the  important  general 
Federal  legislation  for  the  year  1917,  which  happens  to  be  the 
latest  at  hand: 

1.  Increasing  the  membership  of  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission,  and  increasing  the  powers  of  the  Commission. 

2.  Excess  Profits  Tax  on  Corporations. 

3.  Civil  Government  for  Porto  Rico. 

4.  Literary  Test  for  Alien  Immigrants. 

5.  Military  Measures,  namely,  Declaration  of  War  against 
Germany;  Liberty  Bond  Issue;  Ship  and  War  Material  Act; 
Draft  Law;  Food  Control;  Espionage;  War  Risk    Insurance. 

6.  Appropriation  Bills. 

These  measures  are  all  of  general  effect  and  all  require 
expert  knowledge.  It  appears  from  a  mere  reading  of  the 
list  that  they  are  such  as  to  presume  and  require  in  the  legis- 
lators a  knowledge  of  finance;  taxation;  shipping;  food  pro- 
duction; transportation;  insurance;  and  other  subjects. 


272      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE  UNITED   STATES 

New  York  state  legislation  for  1917  dealt  with  the  follow- 
ing subjects,  all  or  nearly  all  relating  to  business  matters: 
Court  officers  and  judicial  procedure;  decedents'  estates;  do- 
mestic relations,  including  marriage  and  illegitimacy  laws; 
penal  and  criminal  statutes;  civil  service  laws;  state  account- 
ing and  budget;  state  police;  municipal  government  regula- 
tions; sales  act;  warehouse  receipt  act;  partnership;  cold- 
storage;  negotiable  instruments;  extradition;  land  registra- 
tion; probate  of  wills;  highways  and  motor  vehicles;  dog 
licenses;  railroad  crossing  protection;  commercial  regulations 
relating  to  trading  stamps;  patent  medicines;  food  products; 
blue  sky  law;  insurance  laws;  corporations;  regulation  of 
public  utilities;  conservation  of  resources;  taxation  laws;  the 
care  of  the  insane;  building  regulations;  banking;  education; 
public  health;  liquor  dealing  and  labor  laws.  This  list  is  not 
at  all  exceptional  and  the  public  need  of  trained  and  informed 
men  in  government  service  is  more  apparent  every  day. 

"There  is  now"  (says  Willoughby)  "demanded  on  the  part  of  our 
lawmakers,  not  only  patriotism  and  political  sagacity  of  the 
highest  order,  but  scientific  knowledge,  and  strict  disinterestedness 
far  beyond  that  formerly  required.  Many  of  the  economic  inter- 
ests that  are  now  discussed  in  our  legislative  halls  require,  in  the 
highest  degree,  scholarly  research  and  judgment."  (Nature  of  the 
State,  p.  416.) 

Now,  when  manhood  suffrage  was  established  here  as  an 
institution ;  when,  as  the  twaddlers  like  to  say,  the  people  took 
command,  it  became  the  privilege  and  the  duty  of  the  ruling 
populace  to  establish  and  enforce  proper  standards  of  quali- 
fication for  its  representatives  and  agents.  Its  orators  pro- 
fessed that  they  were  going  to  show  the  world  great  results  of 
popular  government.  The  wretched  practical  results  we  know. 
But  what  efforts  did  they  make?  What  have  they  in  fact  done 
in  three  generations  towards  securing  efficiency  in  their  elective 
officers?  Absolutely  nothing.  If  any  despot  had  ever  shown 
such  complete  disregard  of  decency  and  propriety  in  his  sys- 
tem of  appointments  as  our  manhood  suffrage  democracy  has, 


INEFFICIENCY  IN   DOMESTIC  AFFAIRS  273 

he  would  be  held  up  to  public  reprobation.  Not  only  are  and 
have  been  the  state  and  national  legislators  and  other  elective 
officials  commonplace  or  below  commonplace  in  character  and 
ability,  but  no  effort  whatever  has  been  made  or  is  being  made; 
no  scheme  has  been  even  proposed,  whereby  to  secure  men  of 
efficiency  for  these  important  places  in  the  gift  of  the  people. 
The  manhood  suffrage  electorates  are  reckless,  unscrupulous 
and  hopelessly  behind  the  age;  they  never  have  recognized 
the  growing  need  for  efficiency.  As  Lowell  says,  "We  are  train- 
ing men  for  all  services  but  that  of  the  public." 

In  fact,  the  scheme  of  manhood  suffrage  makes  no  provision 
for  efficiency,  nor  any  serious  pretence  thereof;  it  ignores  it 
completely  in  the  selection  of  its  agents  and  otherwise.  What- 
ever efficiency  may  be  secured  in  a  democracy  is  obtained  in 
some  way  other  than  by  a  manhood  suffrage  vote.  The  only 
test  applied  by  the  populace  at  an  election  is  the  oratorical  test, 
and  sometimes  not  even  that.  Its  favorites  at  the  polls  are  the 
talkers;  by  talk  they  become  known;  by  talk  they  become 
candidates;  by  speeches  they  gain  elections  and  by  speeches 
they  maintain  their  places.  No  one  knows  or  cares  whether 
they  can  do  anything  else  but  talk.  No  one  ever  heard  of  a 
candidate  for  an  elective  public  office  being  required  to  pro- 
duce proof  of  his  equipment  for  the  place.  A  candidate  for 
alderman  is  not  expected  to  have  served  an  apprenticeship  in 
any  city  department;  nor  to  pass  an  examination  in  harbor 
facilities,  sanitation,  school  management,  public  lighting, 
sewage,  water  supply,  transportation  nor  any  of  the  depart- 
ments of  city  government.  The  candidate  for  mayor  of  New 
York  is  not  required  to  know  the  contents  of  the  Charter  of 
the  city.  Congress  is  supposed  to  be  the  real  governing  body 
in  this  country,  and  would  be  such  if  it  were  not  so  scandalously 
incompetent  and  untrustworthy.  But  a  man  who  can  get  by 
hook  or  crook  on  the  machine  ticket  and  can  make  what  the 
rabble  calls  "a  rattlin'  good  speech"  is  qualified  for  a  seat 
in  Congress.  Whoever  heard  of  a  candidate  for  Congress  or 
a  state  legislature  being  required  to  know  anything  whatever 


274      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE  UNITED   STATES 

about  anything  or  to  have  ever  done  anything  as  a  prerequisite 
to  his  candidacy?  Such  tests  would  be  inconsistent  with  the 
very  theory  of  manhood  suffrage  as  now  entertained.  That 
standards  will  ultimately  have  to  be  applied  even  to  elective 
offices  if  democracy  is  to  prevail  no  far-seeing  man  can  doubt. 
And  there  is  nothing  impracticable  about  the  suggestion.  Even 
now,  in  the  states  where  judges  are  elective,  custom  requires 
that  the  candidate  shall  have  previously  passed  an  examina- 
tion for  admission  to  the  bar.  There  is  no  reason  whatever 
why  all  candidates  for  elective  offices  should  not  be  required 
to  be  reasonably  qualified  for  the  offices  they  seek;  nor  why 
the  electors  themselves  should  not  be  such  persons  as  are  quali- 
fied to  vote,  and  have  proved  their  fitness  for  the  ballot  by 
the  record  of  their  lives  in  the  community.  But  the  essential 
quality  of  manhood  suffrage  is  that  it  rejects  all  tests  for 
voters,  and  so  beginning  at  the  very  source  of  government  its 
anti-efficient  influence  extends  all  along  the  line,  and  tends  to 
neutralize  every  effort  to  elevate  the  standard  of  democratic  ad- 
ministration. Its  spirit  is  directly  opposed  to  the  demand  for 
efficiency  in  governmental  affairs.  Efficiency  is  exclusive,  it 
applies  tests,  and  rejects  those  who  fail.  Beginning  with  the 
voter,  manhood  suffrage  refuses  to  apply  to  him  any  tests 
whatever,  and  denies  not  only  the  policy  of  their  application 
but  the  right  to  use  them.  It  views  the  elective  franchise  as 
the  personal  belonging  of  the  individual,  even  the  most  ignorant 
and  degraded,  to  be  used  to  justify  his  whim,  his  pleasure, 
his  spite,  his  prejudice.  The  newspapers,  unconsciously  per- 
haps, voice  this  spirit.  We  constantly  read  in  the  public  -press 
urgent  invitations  to  vote,  addressed  to  the  careless  or  indif- 
ferent in  politics,  those  who  presumably  have  no  compelling 
opinions  and  are  therefore  quite  unprepared  and  unfit  to  vote. 
Instead  of  being  warned  of  the  wrong  and  danger  of  frivolous 
and  ignorant  voting,  they  are  urged  by  the  newspapers  to  go 
to  the  polls  as  if  to  take  part  in  an  amateur  baseball  game: 
"Come,  join  in;  even  if  you  don't  do  it  well;  it's  the  national 
"game!  There  are  prizes  too,  the  spoils;  and  though  you  don't 


INEFFICIENCY  IN   DOMESTIC  AFFAIRS  275 

"compete  yourself  you  may  have  the  fun  of  seeing  them 
"distributed,  and  root  for  the  victors."  People  are  more  care- 
less in  voting  for  high  officials  than  in  hiring  an  office  boy. 
They  vote  for  men  whom  they  do  not  know  even  by  sight; 
whose  very  names  are  unfamiliar;  and  are  usually  quite  un- 
ashamed of  trifling  with  the  suffrage  in  a  manner  deserving 
punishment.  This  is  one  result  of  our  cheapening  of  the  fran- 
chise. 

If  the  reader  will  peruse  the  list  of  measures  passed  or 
considered  by  Congress  or  his  state  legislature  for  the  current 
year,  he  will  perhaps  be  able  to  judge  whether  his  representa- 
tive in  Washington  or  in  the  state  capital  is  competent  to  deal 
with  such  matters.  Not  one  in  a  hundred  is  fit  for  the  job. 
For  most  of  the  subjects  of  legislation  the  average  public  rep- 
resentative has  had  no  previous  training  whatever.  And  if 
after  long  service  he  happens  to  become  proficient  in  any  of 
them,  the  chances  are  that  he  will  be  sent  back  to  private  life 
by  the  vote  of  a  manhood  suffrage  constituency  under  orders 
of  the  district  boss.  As  a  consequence  it  is  well  known  that 
the  legislative  output  is  and  has  been  for  generations  past 
very  inferior  indeed.  The  abuse  of  state  legislation  is  dealt 
with  elsewhere  in  this  volume;  it  is  so  notorious  that  it  needs 
no  proof,  and  is  so  vast  that  its  complete  discussion  is  far  be- 
yond the  compass  of  this  work.  The  reader  experienced  in 
politics  is  probably  well  aware  that  Ostrogorski  is  right,  in 
his  brief  summary  (p.  374):  "The  laws  are  made  with  singu- 
lar incompetence  and  carelessness.  Their  number  is  excessive, 
"running  into  volumes  each  session;  but  they  are  mostly  laws 
"of  local  or  private  interest.  The  motives  which  enter  into  the 
"making  of  these  laws  are  often  of  an  obviously  mercenary 
"nature."  (Democracy.) 

Before  the  German  war  the  state  legislative  output  in  the 
United  States  was  about  fifteen  thousand  enactments  per  year, 
of  which  about  one-third  were  public  or  general  laws  and  the 
remaining  two-thirds  special  and  local  statutes.  This  year  it  is 
probably  greater.  In  a  recent  single  session  of  Congress  up- 


276      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

wards  of  twenty  thousand  bills  and  resolutions  were  introduced, 
of  which  about  five  thousand  were  passed,  including  nearly  two 
thousand  public  or  general  laws.  Probably  nine-tenths  of  this 
legislation  is  unnecessary  and  a  large  part  of  it  is  undoubtedly 
vicious. 

The  just  resentment  of  America's  business  men  is  being 
constantly  voiced  at  the  manner  in  which  business  interests 
are  being  flouted  by  the  doctrinaires  and  demagogues  to  whom 
our  political  system  entrusts  the  reins  of  government.  The 
following  extracts  from  the  address  of  Otto  H.  Kahn,  before  re- 
ferred to,  will  serve  to  illustrate  some  phases  of  this  attitude  of 
business  towards  politics: 

"A  somewhat  similar  case  is  the  railroad  legislation  which  Con- 
gress enacted  under  the  Taft  administration.  That  legislation  rep- 
resented the  tearing  to  shreds  and  the  subsequent  recasting,  patch- 
ing up  and  ill-devised  piecing  together  by  Congress  of  a  carefully 
thought  out,  though,  in  my  opinion,  by  no  means  faultless  measure, 
which  had  been  introduced  with  the  backing  of  the  Administration. 
You  all  know  the  result.  The  spirit  of  enterprise  in  railroading 
was  killed.  Subjected  to  an  obsolete  and  incongruous  national 
policy,  hampered,  confined,  harassed  by  incessant,  minute,  narrow, 
multifarious  and  sometimes  contradictory  regulations,  that  great 
industry  began  to  fall  away.  Initiative  on  the  part  of  those  in 
charge  became  chilled,  the  free  flow  of  investment  of  capital  was 
halted,  creative  activity  was  stopped,  growth  was  stifled,  credit 
was  crippled.  ..." 

"What  we  business  men  protest  against  is  ignorance,  shallow 
thought  or  doctrinairism  assuming  the  place  belonging  to  expert 
opinion  and  tested  practical  ability.  We  protest  against  sophomor- 
ism  rampant,  strutting  about  in  the  cloak  of  superior  knowledget 
mischievously  and  noisily,  to  the  disturbance  of  quiet  and  orderly 
mental  processes  and  sane  progress.  We  protest  against  senti- 
mental, unseasoned,  intolerant  and  cocksure  'advanced  thinkers' 
being  given  leave  to  set  the  world  by  the  ears  and  with  their  stri- 
dent and  ceaseless  voices  to  drown  the  views  of  those  who  are  too 
busy  doing  to  indulge  in  much  talking.  And  finally  do  we  protest 
against  demagogism,  envy  and  prejudice,  camouflaging  under  the 


INEFFICIENCY  IN  DOMESTIC  AFFAIRS  277 

flag  of  war  necessity  and  social  justice  in  order  to  wage  a  campaign 
through  inflammatory  appeal,  misstatement  and  specious  reasoning 
to  punish  success,  despoil  capital  and  harass  business." 

And  further  on: 

"We  deny  the  suggestion  that  patriotism,  virtue  and  knowledge 
reside  primarily  with  those  who  have  been  unsuccessful,  those  who 
have  no  practical  experience  of  business,  or,  be  it  said  with  all 
respect,  with  those  who  are  politicians  or  office  holders." 

This  remonstrance  of  Mr.  Kahn  is  but  a  sample  which 
might  be  multiplied  by  the  hundreds.  It  is  typical  of  a  con- 
stant stream  of  complaints  which  business  men  in  all  parts  of 
the  country  are  continually  uttering.  The  universal  testimony 
of  our  merchants,  manufacturers  and  financiers  is  that  neither 
at  the  federal  or  state  capitols  do  they  find  men  either  ca- 
pable of  understanding  the  rules  and  operations  of  business  or 
willing  to  study  them,  or  interested  in  the  business  prosperity 
of  the  people.  If  the  reader  will  but  examine  a  list  of 
members  of  any  legislative  body  he  will  understand  the  cause 
of  this  deplorable  situation.  Let  him  study  the  names  of  the 
delegation  at  present  representing  in  the  state  legislature  the 
immense  interests  of  the  City  of  New  York,  her  commerce, 
manufactures,  wealth  and  population.  She  ought  to  be  rep- 
resented there  by  the  class  of  honorable  and  successful  active 
or  retired  merchants;  financiers  of  high  standing;  manufac- 
turers of  note  and  ability  and  leaders  in  the  professions;  by 
publicists;  scholars,  and  men  of  the  first  prominence  in  labor 
organizations ;  to  be  or  to  have  been  a  member  of  a  state  legis- 
lature should  be  a  badge  of  honor.  On  that  list  he  will  prob- 
ably find  not  one  name  known  outside  the  ranks  of  petty 
ward  politicians;  and  men  of  the  high  character  above  de- 
scribed would  feel  it  as  a  stigma  to  have  it  said  that  they  had 
served  in  a  legislative  body. 

Next,  as  to  the  judiciary.  It  is  the  property  of  evil  to 
spread,  and  it  is  one  of  the  curses  of  the  manhood  suffrage 
system,  that  not  content  with  control  of  the  legislature  which 


278      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

is  properly  elective,  it  seizes  upon  and  degrades  the  judicial 
and  administrative  branches  of  government  which  are  both 
naturally  appointive.  Its  effect  upon  the  judicial  bench  has 
been  necessarily  bad,  frequently  covering  the  ermine  with  the 
mire  of  politics.  During  the  period  from  1865  to  1873  so 
many  of  the  judges  sitting  in  New  York  City  were  notoriously 
unfit  and  corrupt,  that  their  doings  furnished  material  for  a 
great  scandal.  The  state  supreme  court  judges,  elected  by 
manhood  suffrage,  were  the  most  conspicuous  sinners,  but 
many  of  the  inferior  judges,  including  those  appointed  by  a 
manhood  suffrage  mayor,  were  equally  unworthy.  Bryce 
visited  one  of  those  courts,  probably  about  1870,  and  this  is 
what  he  saw: 

"An  ill-omened  looking  man,  flashily  dressed  and  rude  in  de- 
meanor, was  sitting  behind  a  table;  two  men  in  front  were  address- 
ing him;  the  rest  of  the  room  was  given  up  to  disorder.  Had  one 
not  been  told  that  he  was  a  judge  of  the  highest  court  of  the  city, 
one  might  have  taken  him  for  a  criminal.  His  jurisdiction  was  un- 
limited in  amount,  and  though  an  appeal  lay  from  him  to  the  Court 
of  Appeals  of  the  State,  his  power  to  issue  injunctions  put  all  the 
property  in  the  district  at  his  mercy." 

He  further  declares  that  at  that  time  there  were  on  the 
bench  in  New  York  City,  bar  room  loafers,  broken-down 
Tombs  attorneys,  needy  adventurers,  whose  want  of  character 
made  them  absolutely  dependent  on  their  patrons.  "They  did 
"not  regard  social  censure,  for  they  were  already  excluded  from 
"decent  society.  Impeachment  had  no  terrors  for  them,  since 
"the  state  legislature,  as  well  as  the  executive  machinery  of 
"the  city,  was  in  the  hands  of  their  masters.  It  would  have 
"been  vain  to  expect  such  people,  without  fear  of  God  or  man 
"before  their  eyes,  to  resist  the  temptations  which  capitalists 
"and  powerful  company  could  offer."  And  further: 

"A  system  of  client  robbery  had  sprung  up,  by  which  each  judge 
enriched  the  knot  of  disreputable  lawyers  who  surrounded  him;  he 
referred  cases  to  them,  granted  them  monstrous  allowances  in  the 
name  of  costs,  gave  them  receiverships  with  a  large  percentage,  and 


INEFFICIENCY  IN  DOMESTIC  AFFAIRS  279 

so  forth;  they  in  turn  either  at  the  time  sharing  the  booty  with  him, 
or  undertaking  to  do  the  same  for  him  when  he  should  have  de- 
scended to  the  Bar  and  they  have  climbed  to  the  Bench.  Nor 
is  there  any  doubt  that  criminals  who  had  any  claim  on  their 
party  often  managed  to  elude  punishment.  The  police,  it  was  said, 
would  not  arrest  such  an  offender  if  they  could  help  it;  the  District 
Attorney  would  avoid  prosecuting;  the  court  officials,  if  public 
opinion  had  forced  the  attorney  to  act,  would  try  to  pack  the  jury; 
the  judge,  if  the  jury  seemed  honest,  would  do  his  best  to  procure 
an  acquittal;  and  if,  in  spite  of  police,  attorney,  officials,  and 
judge,  the  criminal  was  convicted  and  sentenced,  he  might  still 
hope  that  the  influence  of  his  party  would  procure  a  pardon  from 
the  governor  of  the  State,  or  enable  him  in  some  other  way  to  slip 
out  of  the  grasp  of  justice.  For  governor,  judge,  attorney,  officials, 
and  police  were  all  of  them  party  nominees;  and  if  a  man  cannot 
count  on  being  helped  by  his  party  at  a  pinch,  who  will  be  faithful 
to  his  party?"  (American  Commonwealth,  Vol.  II,  pp.  637,  639, 
640.) 

Although  this  extremely  degraded  judiciary  has  passed 
away,  yet  the  whole  story  is  as  pertinent  today  as  it  ever  was, 
for  the  vileness  Bryce  describes  was  the  result  of  the  op- 
eration of  manhood  suffrage  in  a  large  city;  and  the  same 
causes  are  still  in  existence.  In  practice  in  the  great  cities  the 
higher  state  judges  are  usually  selected  by  the  political 
bosses;  and  the  election  is  often  a  mere  form,  or  at  most  a 
contest  between  rival  bosses  in  which  the  public  takes  but  a 
languid  and  futile  interest.  When  the  boss  is  a  rich  man  as 
often  happens  in  a  great  city,  he  gets  to  know  some  able 
lawyers  and  sometimes  makes  fairly  good  selections  for  the 
higher  judicial  vacancies.  This  is  far  better  than  the  populace 
would  be  likely  to  do  if  left  to  themselves.  Another  means  of 
protection  for  judicial  honor  has  been  the  influence  of  an 
educated  bar,  endeavoring  to  enforce  the  traditions  of  the 
past,  and  the  examples  of  other  civilized  countries  to  the 
effect  that  judges  should  be  exempt  from  political  influence 
and  bias.  But  when  all  is  said  and  done  it  is  largely  a  matter 
of  luck  even  in  the  highest  courts  whether  the  judges  are  fit 


280      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

or  otherwise.  That  the  highest  judges  are  still  "bossed"  is 
not  a  mere  vulgar  notion.  How  can  they  escape?  In  the  elec- 
tion for  judges  of  the  highest  New  York  courts  in  1919,  the 
charge  that  certain  judicial  candidates  were  " bossed"  was  pub- 
licly and  persistently  made  by  ex-judges  and  leading  lawyers. 
Of  the  California  judges  in  1877,  Bryce  says: 

"The  judges  were  not  corrupt,  but  most  of  them,  as  was  natural, 
considering  the  scanty  salaries  assigned  to  them,  were  inferior  men, 
not  fit  to  cope  with  the  counsel  who  practised  before  them.  Partly 
owing  to  the  weakness  of  juries,  partly  to  the  intricacies  of  the  law 
and  the  defects  of  the  recently  adopted  code,  criminal  justice  was 
halting  and  uncertain,  and  malefactors  often  went  unpunished.  It 
became  a  proverb  that  you  might  safely  commit  a  murder  if  you 
took  the  advice  of  the  best  lawyers."  (American  Commonwealth, 
Vol.  II,  p.  430.) 

The  most  determined  efforts  of  the  lawyers  of  our  great 
cities  to  make  a  manhood  suffrage  constituency  understand  a 
judicial  election  have  been  complete  failures.  It  is  sometimes 
amusing  to  see  the  straits  to  which  lawyers  and  their  intelli- 
gent friends  are  driven  to  keep  the  judiciary  from  degradation. 
In  New  York,  for  instance,  where  the  judges  are  elected  for 
fourteen-year  terms,  the  lawyers  hit  upon  the  plan  of  demand- 
ing that  sitting  judges  whose  terms  expire  should  always  be 
renominated  by  the  bosses,  on  pain  of  active  opposition  to 
the  entire  ticket,  including  their  proposed  successors. 
This  really  involved  a  violation  of  the  spirit  of  the 
constitution,  for  it  aimed  at  a  life  tenure  for  judges 
instead  of  the  fourteen  years  fixed  by  that  instru- 
ment, to  which  these  lawyers  had  sworn  allegiance.  It  further 
involved  the  absurdity  of  allowing  the  boss  to  select  a  judge, 
but  never  to  drop  him,  no  matter  what  his  record;  and  it  re- 
sulted that  a  candidate  might  be  opposed  by  the  bar  the  first 
time,  but  if  elected  would  certainly  be  supported  by  them  the 
next  time  without  in  either  instance  any  real  investigation  of 
his  record,  character  or  attainments.  All  this  absurdity  has 
been  and  is  committed  by  intelligent  lawyers  in  their  efforts 


INEFFICIENCY  IN   DOMESTIC   AFFAIRS  28l 

to  avoid  the  risk  of  manhood  suffrage  popular  elections  of 
high  judges.  The  reader  can  judge  from  this  how  lively  the 
fear  of  popular  judicial  elections  must  be  in  the  hearts  of  the 
lawyers  of  the  city  of  New  York. 

There  is  of  course  something  repulsive  in  the  very  thought 
of  a  judge  of  a  high  court  being  selected  in  an  election  con- 
test, and  of  his  owing  his  place  to  the  suffrages  of  a  low  popu- 
lace. And  then,  there  is  the  practical  objection  to  an  elective 
judiciary,  that  a  judge's  qualities  are  special  and  such  as  can 
only  be  ascertained  upon  personal  acquaintance  and  by  men 
of  superior  attainments.  The  office  is  properly  an  appointive 
one,  but  with  manhood  suffrage  in  play,  some  of  the  worst 
selections  for  the  bench  have  been  made  by  state  governors, 
in  order  to  reward  followers  or  venal  newspapers.  There  is 
really  no  remedy  and  no  way  of  taking  the  judiciary  out  of 
politics  while  either  the  judge  himself  or  the  appointing  power 
is  created  by  manhood  suffrage.  The  trail  of  the  serpent  is 
over  everything  that  comes  from  that  quarter.  As  for  the 
lower  courts,  the  selections  of  their  judges  have  been  scan- 
dalous; men  have  been  put  on  the  bench  who  were  ignorant 
of  the  first  principles  of  law;  drunkards,  reckless  politicians, 
ignorant,  dishonest,  uncouth,  unmannerly  specimens  who  have 
sought  judicial  office  because  they  had  no  taste  for  hard  work, 
or  because  their  ignorance  or  habits  were  such  that  they  were 
unable  to  earn  an  honest  living  at  the  bar.  Some  of  them 
are  notoriously  owned  by  politicians.  Senator  Breen  says  that 
"After  being  whispered  about  among  a  coterie  of  closest 
"friends  it  becomes  well-known  that  this  particular  politician 
"owns  a  certain  judge  and  can  get  him  to  do  anything.  .  .  . 
"The  miserable  creature  who  is  robbed  in  judicial  honors  re- 
"poses  in  perfect  ignorance  of  the  ignominy  which  his  acts  of 
"dishonor  are  bringing  on  his  name.  This  has  been  the  fate  of 
"many  a  judge."  (Thirty  Years  in  New  York  Politics,  p.  25.) 
A  New  York  newspaper  in  the  Tweed  days  said  that  there 
was  no  quarter  of  the  civilized  world  where  the  name  of  a 
New  York  judge  is  not  a  hissing  and  a  byword.  The  New 


282      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

York  bench  has  on  the  whole  improved  since  1871  when  this 
was  written;  but  it  is  very  far  from  being  what  it  ought  to 
be,  and  its  attainment  of  a  high  standard  is  impossible  under 
manhood  suffrage. 

Taking  the  judicial  system  of  the  United  States  as  a  whole 
for  the  last  three  quarters  of  a  century  it  must  be  said 
that  the  administration  of  justice  has  been  inefficient;  a  large 
percentage  of  the  judges  have  been  and  are  unfit  for  their 
places;  clerks  and  sheriffs  corrupt  and  incapable;  there  have 
been  chronic  and  intolerable  delays;  juries  almost  everywhere 
carelessly  selected,  and  usually  incompetent  and  morally  weak 
or  dishonest;  inferior  magistrates  corrupt  and  unfit;  many  of 
the  trial  judges  weak  and  slow  and  referees  and  masters 
grasping  and  extortionate.  Congress  and  the  several  states 
have  adopted  the  stupid  policy  of  underpaying  the  bench,  ap- 
parently on  the  theory  that  any  lawyer  is  capable  of  being  a 
judge;  and  of  employing  as  few  judges  as  possible  in  order 
to  save  some  of  the  money  elsewhere  so  wickedly  squandered. 
These  foolish  economies  to  offset  reckless  waste  are  charac- 
teristic of  the  lower  classes;  they  are  given  effect  by  uni- 
versal suffrage,  and  harmonize  with  the  whole  inefficient 
outfit.  The  result  is  that  in  many  cities  important  cases  are 
on  the  trial  calendars  for  months  and  even  years  waiting  to 
be  heard  because  there  are  not  judges  enough  to  hear  them 
promptly;  erroneous  decisions  of  weak  and  ignorant  judges 
keep  the  appellate  courts  busy  ordering  reversals  and  grant- 
ing new  trials;  and  a  controversy  that  ought  to  be  disposed 
of  in  a  few  months  may  drag  along  for  years  and  until  some 
of  the  witnesses  have  disappeared  or  died  and  others  have 
forgotten  all  they  once  knew  about  the  case.  Mr.  Bryce,  in 
his  American  Commonwealth,  treats  the  subject  of  the  ju- 
diciary with  great  circumspection,  and  with  an  evident  desire 
to  speak  well  of  the  American  bench,  but  is  unable  after  "care- 
ful inquiries"  to  answer  even  in  the  matter  of  honesty  for 
more  than  "nearly  all  the  northern  and  most  of  the  southern 
and  western  states."  He  says  that  "In  a  few  states,  probably 


INEFFICIENCY  IN   DOMESTIC  AFFAIRS  283 

"six  or  seven  in  all,  suspicions  have  at  one  time  or  another 
"within  the  last  twenty  years  attached  to  one  or  more  of  the 
"Supreme  judges,"  and  has  "never  heard  of  a  state  in  which 
"more  than  two  or  three  judges  were  the  objects  of  distrust  at 
"the  same  time."  It  is  worth  while  to  stop  to  realize  what  this 
amounts  to:  from  twelve  to  twenty  dishonest  judges  of  the 
highest  state  courts  in  the  United  States,  actually  sitting  day 
after  day,  dealing  out  infamy  under  the  name  of  justice; 
criminals  put  on  the  bench  by  the  election  machinery;  a  ju- 
diciary in  six  or  seven  states  so  tainted  that  the  foul  smell 
reached  the  nostrils  of  a  visitor  from  other  lands.  This  state  of 
things  makes  one  suspect  a  low  standard  for  the  entire  ju- 
diciary, or  at  least  for  that  of  each  of  those  six  or  seven  sus- 
pected states,  for  it  indicates  the  unscrupulous  power  of 
politics.  In  a  state  where  even  two  or  three  judges  sell  or  barter 
justice  for  politics,  who  will  not  suspect  that  others,  promoted 
by  the  same  bosses,  or  by  the  same  system,  are  incompetent, 
careless  or  otherwise  unfit? 

The  third  class  of  public  officers,  being  that  which  is  gen- 
erally styled  administrative,  ought  not,  any  more  than  the  ju- 
diciary, to  be  affected  by  politics  and  should  therefore  never  be 
chosen  by  popular  election.  The  function  of  the  legislator  is 
to  enact  new  measures  in  accordance  with  the  progressive 
needs  of  the  people,  and  he  should  therefore  to  a  certain  extent 
consult  their  wishes  in  framing  legislation.  But  the  adminis- 
trative official  is  there  to  obey  and  to  enforce  the  law  as  it 
exists;  his  duty  is  merely  that  of  an  honest,  painstaking  ex- 
pert, and  his  office  should  be  appointive  and  should  never  be 
treated  as  political.  This  distinction  between  legislative  and 
administrative  officials  is  plain  and  wide  to  the  vision  of  any 
man  with  the  least  knowledge  of  government;  and  yet  in  pre- 
paring the  constitutions  and  laws  with  which  they  deign  to 
provide  us,  it  is  frequently  ignored  by  politicians  in  pursuit 
of  political  power  and  patronage;  the  pretense  being  the  fur- 
therance of  democratic  institutions  and  the  rule  of  the  people. 
And  so  in  the  great  state  of  New  York  the  attorney  general, 


284      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

the  state  engineer  and  surveyor,  the  secretary  of  state  and 
the  state  treasurer  have  been  made  and  are  elective  officials; 
and  since  female  suffrage  has  been  established  in  that  state 
we  have  the  edifying  spectacle  of  those  important  offices  being 
filled  and  their  incumbents  chosen,  not  by  the  governor  of  the 
state,  nor  by  any  body  of  experienced  lawyers,  engineers,  busi- 
ness men  or  others  somewhat  acquainted  with  the  workings 
of  the  respective  offices  and  candidates,  but  by  four  millions 
of  miscellaneous  people;  including  motormen,  hod  carriers, 
servant  maids,  seamstresses,  society  ladies,  firemen,  boiler 
makers,  farm  laborers,  gamblers,  loafers,  etc.,  of  whom  ninety- 
nine  out  of  a  hundred  have  no  idea  what  an  attorney  general 
or  a  state  engineer  is,  nor  what  are  the  duties  of  any  of  these 
officials,  and  would  be  unable  the  day  after  election  even  to 
name  the  candidates  for  whom  they  voted  for  those  offices. 
In  fact  the  gross  ineptitude  of  the  institution  of  manhood 
suffrage  is  nowhere  more  strikingly  apparent  than  in  the  elec- 
tion of  state  officers  in  the  Empire  State. 

Nowhere  in  private  life  is  the  principle  of  popular  election 
applied  to  the  choice  of  administrators  or  managers;  such  folly 
is  confined  to  public  affairs.  The  merchant  service  and  the 
army  and  navy  are  not  conducted  upon  the  principle  of  uni- 
versal suffrage;  neither  the  crew  nor  the  passengers,  nor  both 
united,  are  permitted  to  select  the  officers  of  a  ship;  nor  are 
the  rank  and  file  permitted  to  vote  for  their  officers  in  any 
navy,  or  in  any  well-disciplined  army.  The  sick  man  does 
not  choose  his  physician,  nor  the  business  man  his  lawyer  or 
broker  by  taking  the  votes  of  his  neighbors  or  friends.  In 
all  these  instances,  and  in  every  similar  case  of  necessary  care 
in  making  a  choice  of  an  agent,  the  prerequisite  which  is  in- 
sisted upon  as  first  indispensable  and  controlling  is  efficiency; 
and  such  efficiency  can  only  be  obtained  by  intelligent  selec- 
tion. Administrative  officials  should  always  be  possessed 
of  character,  experience,  intelligence  and  other  qualities  which 
go  to  produce  efficiency.  Such  possessions  can  only  be  recog- 
nized by  those  who  are  personally  acquainted  with  the  candi- 


INEFFICIENCY  IN   DOMESTIC  AFFAIRS  285 

dates  and  are  competent  to  pass  upon  these  qualities.  Their 
selection  should  preferably  be  made  by  those  who  are  to  super- 
vise their  conduct  in  office,  and  to  keep  them  up  to  the  stand- 
ard required.  An  appointing  body  is  able  to  consider  all  the 
candidates  who  present  themselves  or  whose  friends  present 
them;  the  electorate  can  only  consider  two  or  three  to  any 
advantage.  The  appointing  body  can  examine  personally  all 
the  candidates;  the  voters  are  incapable  of  properly  examining 
any,  and  have  neither  the  means  nor  the  leisure  for  the  careful 
scrutiny  needed  to  estimate  professional  or  expert  qualifica- 
tions. All  administrative  officers  should  therefore  be  placed 
in  office  by  appointment  of  their  superiors  or  supervisors  who 
are  to  be  held  responsible  for  their  conduct  in  office,  and  never 
by  popular  election  at  the  polls.  Of  course,  the  politicians 
may  reply,  though  they  are  not  likely  to  do  so,  that  the  elec- 
tion of  these  state  officers  is  a  sham;  that  they  are  usually 
far  from  being  the  nondescripts  whom  the  populace  might 
choose  if  left  unbossed;  that  they  are  really  selected  in  secret 
long  before  election,  by  a  political  autocracy,  which  taking 
advantage  of  the  ignorance  and  indifference  of  the  mass  of 
voters,  sees  to  it  that  the  powers  and  patronage  of  these  offices 
go  in  the  direction  of  selected  favorites  of  the  machine,  not 
destitute  of  ability.  This  is  at  least  partly  true,  for  the  ten- 
dency of  manhood  suffrage  is  to  turn  the  elections  into  mere 
formal  ratifications  of  the  will  of  the  bosses.  And  a  machine 
appointment  to  an  administrative  office  usually  results  much 
better  for  the  public  interest  than  a  choice  by  manhood  suf- 
frage, especially  where  there  are  spoils  in  sight  and  where 
rival  organizations  sharpen  their  claws,  as  for  instance  in  a 
mayoralty  contest  in  a  large  city.  Then  ensues  a  real  struggle, 
heightened  by  newspaper  lies  and  clamor,  with  a  tendency  to 
give  the  victory  to  that  one  of  the  factions  whose  managers 
are  most  artful,  impudent  and  mendacious.  In  the  American 
Popular  Science  Review,  February,  1918,  p.  121,  Edgar  Daw- 
son,  speaking  of  the  election  of  a  city  mayor,  an  office  which 
under  any  rational  system  is  treated  as  administrative,  says: 


286      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

"Does  it  require  argument  to  prove  to  thoughtful  people  that 
wise  choice  is  not  likely  to  be  made  in  the  midst  of  the  revel  of 
hysteria,  sham,  demagogy,  falsehood  and  ignorance,  which  we  call 
a  direct  popular  election  of  administrative  officers?  Is  choice  likely 
to  be  wise  when  nine  out  of  ten  of  those  who  make  it  know  nothing 
of  the  candidates  they  support  or  oppose,  and  are  equally  ignorant  of 
the  work  the  candidates  ask  the  privilege  of  doing?" 

Thus  arises  a  question  difficult  to  decide,  between  appoint- 
ments by  a  machine,  and  those  of  a  machine-directed  populace. 

The  immense  importance  of  scientific  management  of  cities 
is  so  obvious  as  not  to  need  discussion.  It  is  set  forth  in  detail 
in  a  book  published  in  1918  by  M.  L.  Cooke,  Director  of  Pub- 
lic Works  in  Philadelphia,  to  which  the  reader  is  referred. 
The  author  states  that  "Governmental  work,  Federal,  State 
"and  Municipal,  is  still  almost  exclusively  in  the  unsystema- 
"tized  stage." 

Here  is  an  extract  from  a  competent  writer,  a  man  of  actual 
experience  in  city  matters: 

"When  the  Public  Builds  Buildings.  Twenty-seven  million  dol- 
lars for  a  City  Hall  that  was  to  have  cost  $7,000,000;  no  water  on 
the  second  floor  of  a  public  bath  because  the  water  mains  were  made 
too  small ;  an  emergency  order,  without  competitive  bids,  for  repair- 
ing a  police  precinct,  given  to  a  contractor  sixteen  miles  away; 
$20,000  for  cleaning  a  City  Hall  that  could  be  kept  clean  for  $2,000; 
fifteen  employees  dead  from  tuberculosis  in  one  germ-infested,  dark, 
unclean  room.  What's  the  use  of  multiplying  examples?" 
(Woman's  Part  in  Government,  by  W.  H.  Allen,  p.  330.) 

The  lack  of  efficiency  in  Federal  administration  which  has 
been  notorious  for  ninety  years  is  due  to  the  malign  influence 
of  manhood  suffrage  which  renders  it  impossible  to  enforce 
standards  of  capacity.  What  Faguet  calls  "the  religion  of  in- 
competency"  is  displayed  even  in  the  presidential  appoint- 
ments where  men  are  moved  about  from  office  to  office  like 
checkers  on  a  board,  and  put  in  places  for  which  they  have  had 
no  previous  training  whatever.  This  method  of  appointment 


INEFFICIENCY  IN  DOMESTIC  AFFAIRS  287 

is  in  itself  convincing  proof,  not  merely  of  the  unfitness  of  the 
appointments,  but  of  the  vice  of  the  whole  system  of  selection. 
A  jack  of  all  trades  is  master  of  none.  What  would  be  said 
of  the  fitness  of  a  man  to  superintend  a  watch-making  estab- 
lishment who  had  never  worked  at  the  trade  or  business  of 
maker  or  of  dealer  in  watches,  and  whose  entire  experience 
had  consisted  of  one  or  two  years  in  each  of  the  employments 
of  carpenter,  dentist,  cook  and  piano  tuner?  Yet  the  practice 
of  politics  sanctions  just  such  appointments  as  that  would  be. 
Even  for  great  offices  requiring  the  highest  skill,  preparatory 
training  or  experience  is  rarely  required.  Looking  back  from 
1918;  out  of  forty- four  United  States  Secretaries  of  State  from 
the  beginning  of  our  history,  thirty-three  were  lawyers;  only 
three  or  four  had  any  previous  diplomatic  experience;  out  of 
the  sixteen  last  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury,  twelve  were  lawyers 
and  only  four  bankers;  out  of  the  last  thirteen  Postmasters 
General,  only  one  had  ever  before  been  in  the  Post  Office  De- 
partment; of  forty-nine  Secretaries  of  War  in  our  history 
thirty-five  were  lawyers;  the  others  were  editors,  bankers,  etc., 
and  only  three  or  four  had  any  previous  military  experience; 
out  of  thirty-eight  Secretaries  of  the  Navy  twenty-seven  were 
lawyers,  three  authors,  and  seven  were  business  men.  Not 
one  of  them  all  had  any  naval  experience  prior  to  taking  control 
of  the  United  States  Navy.  A  former  Secretary  of  the  Navy 
gave  the  writer  to  understand  that  he  had  been  appointed  prin- 
cipally to  distribute  the  patronage  and  to  hold  the  state  politi- 
cally in  line.  Now,  while  it  is  quite  true  that  a  knowledge  of  the 
law  and  a  training  in  the  art  of  reading  and  understanding  law 
is  extremely  important  to  any  cabinet  official,  yet  surely  a 
lawyer  cannot  be  expected  to  build  sliips,  conduct  a  post-office 
business,  direct  the  diplomacy  of  a  great  nation  or  carry  on  war 
properly  without  any  appropriate  previous  training  whatever. 
Yet  under  a  system  of  government  by  manhood  or  universal 
suffrage  untrained  men  are  sure  to  get  these  high  appointments 
because  they  are  vote-getters  and  can  obtain  the  support  of  the 
controllable  class  for  the  party  in  power;  in  short  because  they 


288      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

are  machine  men  and  the  needs  of  the  machine  are  first  and 
imperative. 

The  extent  to  which  some  of  these  cabinet  officers  have  been 
shifted  about  is  astonishing.  Mr.  Cortelyou  for  instance  had 
been  stenographer  and  private  secretary  to  President  McKin- 
ley;  and  in  a  few  years  thereafter  filled  the  offices  of  Secretary 
of  Commerce  and  Labor,  Postmaster  General  and  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury.  Mr.  Meyer  was  Postmaster  General  under  Roose- 
velt and  Secretary  of  the  Navy  under  Taft,  the  next  President. 
Moody  from  the  place  of  Secretary  of  the  Navy  under  Roose- 
velt was  suddenly  jumped  onto  the  bench  and  made  Justice  of 
the  Supreme  Court.  Charles  Bonaparte  was  Attorney  General 
when  he  was  shifted  into  the  place  of  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 
Now  it  is  a  sufficient  tax  on  human  credulity  to  ask  one  to  be- 
lieve that  the  original  appointments  of  these  men  were  made 
entirely  because  of  fitness ;  but  it  exceeds  the  limit  when  we  are 
required  to  suppose  that  while  in  the  office  of  Postmaster  Gen- 
eral Mr.  Cortelyou  was  really  learning  finance  and  becoming 
fitted  for  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  while  Mr.  Meyer  in  the 
same  Postmaster  General's  office  was  becoming  a  great  naval 
expert,  a  real  seadog  justified  to  be  "Ruler  of  Uncle  Sam's 
Navee." 

It  is  notorious  that  all  state  appointments  by  the  governor 
are  made  not  for  merit,  but  as  a  reward  for  political  service, 
and  invariably  from  the  members  of  the  political  oligarchy  who 
procured  the  governor's  election,  or  under  their  direction  to 
members  of  their  family  or  backers.  The  results  are  often 
grotesque.  Look  for  a  moment  at  a  batch  of  state  appoint- 
ments; take  the  very  first  that  happens  to  come  to  hand  from 
New  York.  State  Tax  Commissioner  W.  was  formerly  State 
Comptroller  and  before  that  Postmaster.  Election  Superinten- 
dent R.,  formerly  Assistant  District  Attorney  in  New  York 
City,  was  before  that  in  the  Attorney  General's  office  in  Albany 
and  Superintendent  of  State  Prisons.  R.  2  was  recently  Col- 
lector of  the  Port  of  Rochester;  he  now  holds  a  state  office. 
Another  couple: — V.  has  been  successively  Commissioner  of 


INEFFICIENCY  IN  DOMESTIC  AFFAIRS  289 

Excise,  Commissioner  of  Police,  Commissioner  of  Docks,  Po- 
lice Justice,  Commissioner  of  Elections;  Superintendent  of 
Public  Buildings;  Superintendent  of  Elections.  H.  has  held 
the  offices  of  Deputy  Collector  of  Internal  Revenue;  member 
of  Board  of  Alderman;  Grain  Superintendent;  Sealer  of 
Weights  and  Measures;  Superintendent  of  Streets  and  Clerk 
of  the  Court.  The  practice  is  the  same  in  all  states  and  cities, 
and  these  five  instances  could  be  easily  increased  to  five  thou- 
sand and  with  time  and  research  to  five  hundred  thousand.  In 
fact  it  is  rare  to  find  a  man  of  over  thirty-five  years  of  age  in 
public  office  who  has  not  filled  several  entirely  different  po- 
litical employments.  It  is  said  that  one  of  the  members  of  the 
New  York  Constitutional  Convention  of  1846  proposed  that 
public  officials  should  be  selected  by  lot;  and  it  is  doubtful 
whether  in  some  cases  the  result  would  not  be  an  improvement 
on  the  present  system.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  government  ad- 
ministration is  a  joke,  an  object  of  scorn  to  business  men? 
Efficiency  cannot  be  expected  in  any  department  of  govern- 
ment or  business  whose  chief  is  ignorant  of  the  details  of  its 
operations.  And  yet  so  demoralizing  has  been  the  effect  of  the 
manhood  suffrage  political  tradition,  so  accustomed  are  not 
merely  the  politicians  but  the  public  to  the  vicious  practice  of 
distributing  these  most  important  offices  as  rewards  for  politi- 
cal work,  that  the  proposal  to  require  them  to  be  filled  by  men 
of  experience  and  training  in  the  work  of  their  respective  offices 
would  probably  be  met  with  derisive  laughter  in  every  govern- 
mental department. 

Let  us  not  flatter  ourselves,  therefore,  that  under  a  manhood 
suffrage  government  any  real  improvement  can  be  obtained 
by  the  mere  expedient  so  often  urged  of  filling  the  offices  by 
appointment  instead  of  by  election.  Experience  teaches  the 
contrary.  At  present  the  appointments  to  office,  whether  made 
by  the  president,  governor  or  other  officer  are  of  the  same 
general  character  as  those  made  by  popular  election;  that  is, 
they  are  nearly  all  bad;  the  spirit  of  Jackson  still  controls 
most  of  them;  the  spirit  of  politics,  of  deference  to  the  will  of 


2  90      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

the  machine,  of  compliance  with  the  theory  on  which  uni- 
versal suffrage  stands;  the  theory  that  participation  in  the 
activities,  honors  and  emoluments  of  government  is  a  sort  of 
perquisite  of  citizenship  or  privilege  in  which  each  citizen  is 
entitled  to  share.  This  pernicious  theory  must  be  forever 
cast  out  of  our  political  system  and  replaced  by  the  true  one; 
namely,  that  both  the  vote  and  office  are  to  be  entrusted  only 
to  the  qualified,  before  we  can  expect  permanent  improvement 
in  the  administration  of  public  affairs.  In  vain  we  may  con- 
tinue the  long  struggle  to  abolish  the  spoils  system  as  long  as 
every  candidate  from  the  president  down  to  constable  has  to 
face  the  demands  of  the  insatiable  regular  army  of  the  poli- 
ticians. Not  only  every  legislative  candidate,  but  every  as- 
pirant for  a  judicial  or  administrative  office,  has  now  in  one 
way  or  another  to  satisfy  these  disciplined  gangs  of  political 
marauders,  their  bosses  and  their  machines.  These  hireling 
bands  must  be  disfranchised  and  disbanded  and  the  institution 
of  manhood  suffrage  overthrown  before  efficiency  will  become 
an  established  feature  of  our  governmental  system. 

Of  the  fact  that  a  pure  and  efficient  administration  of  public 
affairs  is  possible  there  cannot  be  the  slightest  doubt.  The 
result  was  actually  achieved  in  this  country  in  federal  admin- 
istration by  President  Washington,  and  continued  in  the  forty 
years  that  intervened  till  Jackson's  time.  It  has  also  been 
accomplished  by  ourselves  in  the  Philippines,  by  the  French 
and  Dutch  in  some  of  their  colonies,  and  notably  by  Great 
Britain  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  Read  for  instance  the  report 
from  which  the  following  is  an  extract,  made  by  Alleyne  Ire- 
land, a  specialist  in  Colonial  affairs,  appointed  Colonial  Com- 
missioner in  the  Far  East,  by  the  University  of  Chicago. 
(North  American  Review,  May,  1918.) 

"Administration  as  a  non-political  function  of  government  is  a 
conception  unfamiliar  to  the  American  mind;  and  I  propose  to  de- 
scribe in  outline  how  administrative  problems  appear  to  the  eye 
of  a  man  who  has  spent  twenty  years  in  studying  those  forms  of 
government  in  which  administration  is  conducted  on  a  non-political 


INEFFICIENCY  IN  DOMESTIC  AFFAIRS  2QI 

basis.  I  have  observed  in  actual  operation  ten  distinct  forms  of 
government  which  conform  to  this  condition.  They  are  the  Crown 
Colony  System  in  various  British  Colonies;  the  Central  Government 
of  India;  the  Indian  Provincial  System  in  Burma;  the  system  of 
Protected  Native  States  in  the  Malay  Peninsula;  the  Government 
of  a  Commercial  Company  in  Borneo;  the  Rule  of  an  Independent 
White  Raja  in  Sarawak;  the  early  American  Government  in  Min- 
danao; limited  Parliamentary  Government  in  British  Guiana  and 
Barbados;  the  French  Colonial  System  in  Indo-China;  and  the 
Dutch  Colonial  System  in  Java.  In  the  countries  I  have  named 
there  are  administered  the  public  affairs  of  more  than  300,000,000 
people.  Although  these  governments  have  been  constantly  attacked 
on  the  ground  of  their  lack  of  a  popular  political  element  it  is  the 
general  verdict  of  those  who  have  observed  them  in  action  that, 
leaving  political  participation  aside,  they  furnish  this  vast  popula- 
tion with  a  larger  measure  of  the  tangible  fruits  of  good  govern- 
ment than  is  enjoyed  by  any  people  under  the  more  'liberal1  con- 
stitutions of  Europe  and  America.  .  .  .  The  influence  exerted  upon 
policy  by  the  one  and  by  the  other  of  these  two  modes  of  procedure 
differs  profoundly.  In  the  United  States  the  matter  is  decided, 
initially,  by  some  hundreds  of  men,  and  many  having  strong  political 
motives  for  taking  a  particular  view;  in  India  the  matter  is  decided, 
initially,  by  six  men,  each  of  whom  is  a  trained  and  experienced 
administrator,  and  none  of  whom  has  any  electorate  to  please,  any 
powerful  business  interest  to  placate,  or  any  political  party  to  sup- 
port. In  the  former  instance  the  veto  rests  with  one  man  who  may 
have  no  more  than  an  amateur's  acquaintance  with  the  question  in- 
volved; in  the  latter  the  veto  also  rests  with  one  man,  but  this  man 
is,  in  practice,  guided  by  the  advice  of  the  India  Council,  a  body  of 
from  ten  to  fourteen  men,  sitting  in  London,  composed  as  to  the 
majority,  of  ex-Indian  officials  of  long  service  and  varied  adminis- 
trative experience." 

We  are  not  lacking  in  material  in  America;  we  have 
the  best  in  the  world;  energetic,  honest,  upright,  clear-headed, 
healthy,  vigorous,  disinterested,  patriotic,  well-educated  men; 
noble  fellows,  plenty  of  them;  eager  for  work;  but  they  are 
not  in  politics  and  never  will  be  there  under  the  present  vile 
regime.  It  is  just  because  they  prize  honor  and  reputation 


2 Q2      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

that  they  stay  out  of  politics.  Bryce  truly  says  that  "the 
"American  system  does  not  suceed  in  bringing  the  best  men 
"to  the  top.  Yet  in  Democracy  more  perhaps  than  in  other 
"governments,  seeing  it  is  the  most  delicate  and  difficult  of 
"governments,  it  is  essential  that  the  best  men  should  come 
"to  the  top."  What  prevents  our  best  men  from  coming  to 
the  top?  What  prevents  our  having  in  this  country  the  purity 
and  efficiency  witnessed  by  Mr.  Ireland  in  ten  different  juris- 
dictions? Principally,  our  political  spoils  system,  whose  source 
and  support  are  manhood  suffrage  and  the  controllable  vote. 
Secondarily,  our  failure  to  recognize  formally  and  actually  the 
principle  of  efficiency  as  the  prime  essential  in  government. 
Such  recognition  will  neither  be  genuine  nor  effective  unless  it 
begins  with  requiring  an  efficient  electorate.  After  that  what 
remains  to  be  done  will  be  comparatively  easy  and  natural. 
Without  it,  the  cause  of  substantial  reform  is  practically  hope- 
less. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

WEAKNESS   AND   INEFFICIENCY   OF   OUR   MANHOOD   SUFFRAGE 
GOVERNMENT  IN  ITS  FOREIGN  RELATIONS 

THE  qualities  which  render  a  government  popular  or  suc- 
cessful at  home  do  not  always  work  for  efficiency  in  foreign 
relations.  In  home  matters  the  nation  discusses,  divides,  and 
experiments;  in  its  foreign  relations  it  must  act  as  one  man 
and  present  to  the  other  nations  the  same  single  attitude  as 
would  be  offered  by  a  dictatorship.  Therefore  it  has  been 
often  said  that  a  democracy  is  apt  to  be  weak  in  its  foreign 
policy,  because  it  has  to  reconcile  so  many  opinions  before  it 
can  effectually  act.  But  this  weakness  is  not  inherent  in  every 
conceivable  democracy;  it  is  possible  for  a  democratic  elec- 
torate if  sufficiently  intelligent  to  select  one  man  or  a  small 
group  of  men  to  represent  it  in  foreign  affairs  with  firmness  and 
ability.  This,  however,  cannot  be  expected  from  an  unintelli- 
gent constituency  such  as  manhood  suffrage  provides,  much 
less  from  an  organization  for  spoils  such  as  it  has  developed 
and  placed  in  power  in  the  United  States. 

The  manhood  suffrage  politicians  who  have  had  the  popular 
ear  for  the  past  century  have  not  understood  the  necessities  or 
proprieties  of  our  foreign  relations,  and  have  misinformed  the 
people  on  the  subject.  They  have  adopted  the  cheap  news- 
paper attitude  of  sneering  at  skill,  tact  and  secrecy  and  ap- 
plauding truculence  and  bluff  in  foreign  diplomacy.  They 
have  never  realized  the  value  of  trained  and  cultivated  states- 
manship. Its  importance  is  however  transcendent.  As  long 
as  the  world  continues  to  be  composed  of  many  different  na- 
tions each  including  large  populations,  differing  more  or  less 
in  race,  religion,  habits  and  prejudices  from  each  of  the  others, 

203 


294      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

there  will  be  new  and  delicate  situations  constantly  arising, 
requiring  the  practice  of  tact,  statesmanship,  diplomacy,  and 
a  historical  as  well  as  a  present  day  practical  knowledge  of 
foreign  countries.  But  under  the  system  of  universal  suffrage 
the  populace  is  king,  .the  machine  is  his  chief  minister,  the 
cheap  daily  press  is  his  mouthpiece,  and  statesmen  and  dip- 
lomats are  not  valued  by  either.  The  inferior  newspapers 
want  men  in  office  who  depend  not  on  merit  but  on  advertise- 
ment; who  rely  for  promotion  on  journalistic  control  of  a 
public  which  gets  all  its  information  from  the  daily  press. 
They  prefer  politicians  who  toady  to  them  to  statesmen  who 
despise  their  ignorance,  their  lies  and  their  vulgarities.  It  is 
the  custom  of  both  politicians  and  newspapers  to  belittle 
statesmanship,  because  the  politicians  have  no  knowledge  of 
its  history  and  capacities,  and  because  real  statesmen  are  in- 
disposed to  tolerate  the  pretensions  and  the  interference  of 
either  newspapers  or  politicians.  All  three,  populace,  press 
and  political  machine,  would  like  to  see  the  general  policy  of 
the  nation,  including  its  foreign  affairs,  confided  to  such  poli- 
ticians as  would  seek  guidance  rather  in  the  opinions  of  the 
mob  and  the  columns  of  the  newspapers  than  in  studies  of  the 
history  of  foreign  politics,  of  economics,  of  institutions  and  of 
the  dynamic  forces  of  the  time. 

There  can  be  no  successful  diplomatic  or  even  business  ne- 
gotiation without  a  decent  amount  of  secrecy.  The  cheap 
newspapers  dislike  this  precaution.  They  pretend  to  see  no 
need  for  secret  diplomacy;  they  insist  that  all  negotiations 
between  nations  should  be  public.  They  are  not  prone  to 
understand  pride  or  delicacy  in  any  quarter,  and  would  like 
to  see  made  public  the  private  transactions  not  only  of  na- 
tions but  of  individuals,  so  that  they  might  thus  satisfy  the 
cheap  curiosity  of  their  readers;  for  this  reason  they  are  op- 
posed to  the  law  of  libel  and  to  every  protection  to  human 
privacy.  They  tell  us  in  their  flippant  and  cock-sure  way  that 
diplomacy  and  secrecy  are  not  necessary  parts  of  the  policy 
or  of  the  procedure  of  a  free  nation;  that  all  treaty  negotia- 


INEFFICIENCY   IN    FOREIGN    AFFAIRS  295 

tions  should  be  open;  and  they  are  fond  of  denouncing  with 
a  great  show  of  moral  indignation  the  secret  diplomacy  of  the 
so-called  autocracies  of  the  world.  But  common  sense  teaches 
us  that  as  long  as  national  pride  continues,  and  treaties  are  to 
be  made  and  war  and  peace  decided  upon  by  governments, 
that  is  to  say,  as  long  as  opposing  and  warlike  nations  exist, 
secrecy  will  be  necessary  in  the  discussion  of  treaties  and  in 
all  important  international  negotiations;  and  that  the  govern- 
ment which  neglects  to  use  the  precaution  and  to  give  the 
guaranty  of  secrecy  will  be  sometimes  left  in  the  lurch. 

We  hear  a  lot  about  a  League  of  Nations  in  these  days.  The 
greatest  and  most  successful  league  of  sovereign  powers  ever 
established  was  this  Union  of  States  by  and  under  a  Consti- 
tution which  was  forged  and  created  at  Philadelphia  in  1787 
by  some  forty  educated  and  propertied  gentlemen  working  in 
absolute  secrecy.  Neither  the  newspapers  nor  the  populace 
was  allowed  to  be  present  or  to  be  represented  at  their  delibera- 
tions, nor  to  know  what  was  going  on,  nor  to  read  or  otherwise 
learn  of  their  debates  or  processes,  therefore  the  delegates 
were  able  to  work  untrammelled  and  to  produce  good  results. 
Absolute  secrecy  in  its  construction  made  our  American  Con- 
stitution possible. 

Besides  secrecy,  great  skill  is  required  in  the  making  of 
treaties  and  constitutions.  The  nations  whose  rulers  and  dip- 
lomatic agents  are  chosen  under  a  system  of  universal  suffrage, 
of  government  by  demagogues  and  platform  ranters  who  are 
allowed  and  expected  to  distribute  diplomatic  posts  among 
their  supporters;  such  nations  will  suffer  in  competition  with 
those  whose  polity  brings  to  the  front  and  puts  in  command  a 
set  of  trained  educated  statesmen  and  diplomats.  The  two 
greatest  triumphs  of  the  United  States  in  its  entire  history 
were  diplomatic  achievements;  and  both  were  accomplished 
by  statesmen  trained  under  the  old  property  qualification  suf- 
frage system,  before  manhood  suffrage  had  cheapened  our  in- 
stitutions. It  was  diplomacy,  and  secret  diplomacy  at  that, 
which  under  the  astute  management  of  Franklin  obtained  for 


2Q6      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

the  American  States  the  aid  of  France  and  made  successful 
the  American  Revolution.  It  was  diplomacy,  secret  and  highly 
skilled  diplomacy,  which  procured  in  1803  the  cession  to  the 
United  States  by  France  of  Louisiana,  from  which  territory  nine 
great  states  and  the  greater  part  of  four  others  were  created 
and  which  made  the  United  States  a  real  power  in  the  world. 
The  story  of  that  acquisition  as  described  by  Fiske  is  that  of 
one  of  the  greatest  diplomatic  achievements  in  history;  and, 
after  making  all  allowances  for  good  luck  in  the  affair,  we 
find  there  pictured  a  statesmanship  and  a  patriotism  calculated 
to  thrill  the  heart  of  every  American.  The  men  who  were 
most  conspicuous  on  the  American  side  from  first  to  last  in 
that  transaction,  were  not  of  the  class  of  politicians  who  are 
to-day  being  chosen  for  high  office  by  the  popular  vote;  they 
were  Washington,  Adams,  Jefferson  and  Robert  R.  Livingston; 
all  of  them  men  of  position,  property,  good  family,  descent 
and  education.  All  but  Washington  were  college  graduates. 
All  were  brought  to  the  front  by  a  system  established  upon 
the  votes  of  a  propertied  electorate. 

As  government  by  the  propertied  class  was  successful  in 
diplomacy  in  those  old  days,  so  that  of  manhood  suffrage  has 
been  a  diplomatic  failure  in  our  own  time.  The  most  recent 
and  terrible  instance  of  the  direful  results  of  lack  of  govern- 
mental efficiency  has  been  that  of  the  episode  of  the  German 
War  just  concluded.  Democracy  was  not  only  unprepared  in 
1914  for  the  struggle  with  Germany,  but  it  completely  failed 
to  foresee  or  even  to  suspect  its  approach.  The  crisis  of  1914 
found  the  four  great  democratic  nations  of  the  world  deficient 
in  military  organization,  in  preparation  for  defense,  and  in 
international  vision  and  information.  Granted  the  existence 
of  a  Germany,  armed  to  the  teeth,  and  sharpening  her  sword 
for  mischief,  Democracy  should  have  had  in  charge  of  its 
foreign  affairs  men  with  vision  sufficient  to  enable  them  to 
foresee  or  at  least  to  conjecture  her  designs.  Of  these  designs 
her  democratic  neighbors  had  no  conception,  and  the  United 
States  was  as  unsuspecting  as  a  child.  No  effort  had  been 


INEFFICIENCY    IN    FOREIGN    AFFAIRS  2 97 

made  to  study  the  situation.  Our  rulers  were  mere  vote- 
getters,  local  politicians,  with  a  ridiculously  small  knowledge 
of  foreign  affairs,  and  of  the  dreadful  impending  future  no 
vision  whatever.  We  had  then  and  we  have  now  no  adequate 
foreign  affairs  organization  at  Washington  or  abroad;  and  no 
sufficient  popular  conception  of  the  need  of  one.  It  was  part 
of  the  business  of  an  efficient  national  government  in  1914 
to  understand  thoroughly  our  foreign  relations;  and  therefore 
to  keep  competent  representatives  in  all  foreign  countries;  to 
measurably  understand  the  policy  of  Germany  and  every  other 
first  class  power  and  its  true  significance;  the  extent  of  Ger- 
many's military  and  naval  preparations  and  their  object,  and 
the  issues  involved  in  the  war;  it  was  its  business  to  realize 
our  true  interests  therein;  to  keep  informed  of  every  phase  of 
the  struggle  as  it  proceeded;  to  lead  and  advise  the  press  and 
the  representatives  of  the  people  on  all  these  matters;  to  cause 
due  preparation  to  be  made  for  all  eventualities,  and  to  pre- 
scribe a  consistent  and  dignified  policy  for  the  nation.  No  one 
can  possibly  deny  that  the  Washington  administration  failed 
in  all  and  every  one  of  these  respects.  It  did  none  of  these 
things;  and  let  us  haste  to  say  that  it  is  not  to  be  supposed 
that  the  opposite  party  could  have  done  any  better.  In  these 
important  matters  Washington  could  not  help  but  fail,  because 
our  political  system  created  by  universal  suffrage  and  guided 
by  its  paltry  spirit  makes  no  provision  for  statesmanship  or 
diplomacy;  for  forethought,  sagacity  and  profound  policy  in 
foreign  affairs;  nor  for  preparation  for  great  wars.  Nor  were 
the  other  great  democracies,  Great  Britain,  France,  or  Italy, 
much  better  off,  as  is  shown  by  the  miserable  Russian  fiasco, 
when  they  and  ourselves,  with  an  incredible  fatuous  folly  per- 
mitted and  even  aided  or  encouraged  the  Bolsheviki  and  their 
German  assistants  to  destroy  the  Russian  alliance,  by  deposing 
the  friendly  Czar  who  was  maintaining  a  government  which 
had  fought  nobly  and  effectively  for  the  common  cause,  and 
which  was  the  only  civilized  government  possible  in  Russia. 
It  was  then  in  the  power  of  the  Allies  backing  the  Czar  to 


2Q8      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

have  stamped  out  Bolshevism.  They  allowed  him  to  be  de- 
posed by  a  gang  of  adventurers,  while  we  stupidly  applauded 
and  raised  the  silly  cry  that  Russia  was  now  a  democracy; 
a  free  country  forsooth.  Misled  by  our  ignorant  and 
worthless  Foreign  Office  the  masses  who  foolishly  believe 
that  freedom  consists  in  merely  voting  at  elections  were  de- 
lighted; our  politicians  and  newspapers  really  or  affectedly 
joined  in  this  senseless  joy;  and  the  few  among  us  who  under- 
stood what  was  really  being  done  were  unable  to  get  a  hearing. 
Civilization  in  Russia  and  the  cause  of  the  Allies  was  betrayed 
by  the  ignorance  of  the  politicians  who  controlled  the  Allied 
policies,  and  the  result  has  been  the  loss  of  tens  of  thousands 
of  American  lives  and  billions  of  American  dollars. 

A  corresponding  inefficiency  was  displayed  elsewhere 
by  the  great  allied  democracies.  From  the  moment  of 
the  first  blare  of  the  German  war  trumpet  in  1914  we  saw 
them  piteously  struggling  to  free  themselves  from  the  burden 
of  the  political  ineptitude  which  this  pernicious  system  of  uni- 
versal suffrage  and  vote-getting  politics  had  fastened  upon 
each  of  them;  striving  to  oust  the  democracy  of  ignorance  and 
weakness,  and  to  give  the  aristocracy  of  merit  the  place  it 
must  have  before  the  fierce  contest  could  be  won.  Some  of 
the  incompetents  chosen  for  office  by  the  much  vaunted  elec- 
tive system  were  pushed  to  the  rear  out  of  sight;  some  were 
otherwise  got  rid  of  or  superseded;  and  some  were  slowly 
trained  up  to  the  efficiency  they  should  have  already  possessed 
before  being  put  in  places  of  trust  and  power.  In  the  mean- 
time, there  was  over  there  failure  and  again  failure;  failure  in 
Serbia;  failure  in  Greece;  failure  in  Rumania;  failure  in  Ire- 
land; failure  in  Russia.  And  here  in  our  own  country  as  the 
war  proceeded,  want  of  foresight,  want  of  preparation,  ineffi- 
ciency and  waste;  and  though  democracy  conquered  at  last 
it  was  by  sheer  weight  of  numbers  and  resources,  while  its 
slowness  to  understand,  to  decide  and  to  act  brought  us  to 
the  very  verge  of  disaster  and  cost  untold  lives  and  money, 
which  efficiency  would  have  saved. 


INEFFICIENCY   IN    FOREIGN   AFFAIRS  2  99 

For  the  benefit  of  short  memories,  the  writer  presents  here 
a  few  extracts  from  publications  pointing  out  our  criminal 
want  of  preparation  for  defense  at  all  times  prior  to  1918. 
For  this  situation,  each  political  party  blames  the  other; 
the  fact  being,  that  the  fault  is  chargeable,  not  to  any  party, 
group  or  individual,  but  to  our  political  system  and  cheap 
traditions. 

"And  we  are  unprepared.  We  have  neither  gates  nor  bars.  We 
are  careless  of  the  future,  and  the  machinations  of  wicked  men  and 
the  ambitions  of  royalty.  We  sit  in  fancied  security,  trusting  to 
the  potency  of  our  riches  and  the  divinations  of  our  stargazers.  We 
are  fat,  otiose,  spineless,  insolent  and  rich.  Could  the  devil  himself 
add  anything  to  this  catalogue  to  make  us  riper  for  plucking?" 
(Henry  D.  Estabrook  —  "Bewaredness,"  the  American  Academy  of 
Political  and  Social  Science.  The  Annals,  July,  1916. 

"The  term,  a  'fool's  paradise,'  describes  to  perfection  the  dream- 
land in  which  Americans  have  slumbered  for  years  in  their  com- 
placent indifference  to  national  defence."  (Huidenkoper's  Military 
Preparedness,  p.  252.) 

"We  never  want  to  face  another  (war)  in  such  ridiculous  help- 
lessness as  has  crippled  us  in  facing  this  one."  (New  York  Mail, 
Ed.  July  26th,  1917.) 

"More  than  thirty  months  after  the  outbreak  of  the  European 
War,  with  all  its  terrible  lessons,  we  have  still  to  lay  the  statutory 
foundations  of  a  proper  system  of  land-defense."  (H.  L.  Stimson, 
Scribners',  April,  1917.) 

"The  United  States  of  America  is  prepared  for  war  neither  com- 
mercially nor  physically.  ...  We  have  neither  a  merchant  fleet  to 
carry  our  commerce  nor  any  army  and  navy  to  protect  it."  (Chi- 
cago Evening  Post,  Feb.  14,  1917.) 

"The  crisis  finds  us  unprepared."  (Chicago  Tribune,  Feb.  isth, 
1917.) 

A  well-known  authority  on  naval  and  military  affairs,  writing 
in  the  Outlook  of  April  nth,  1917,  says,  p.  651: 

"The  greatest  fault  in  democracy  is  the  lack  of  imagination  of  its 
administrators.  Our  press  are  held  in  the  hollow  of  the  hands  of 


300      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

political  men  whose  knowledge  of  the  art  of  war  is  only  of  the 
primary  school  standard." 

"The  European  War  has  demonstrated  to  our  people,  among 
many  other  things,  that  this  country  is  as  unprepared  on  land  to 
defend  herself  in  case  of  an  attack  as  was  Belgium."  (Adj.  Gen. 
Charles  H.  Cole,  of  the  Mass.  National  Guard,  Worcester  Magazine.) 

"The  close  of  1915  found  the  United  States  Government  involved 
in  most  serious  diplomatic  differences  with  Germany  and  Austria. 
.  .  .  The  Navy,  which  in  1904  stood  second  in  strength,  is  now  third 
in  material  strength  and  fourth  or  fifth  in  the  strength  of  personnel. 
...  As  showing  the  farcical  weakness  of  our  mobile  land  forces,  it 
is  sufficient  to  say  that  we  have  in  the  continental  United  States 
to-day  only  30,000  effective  militia,  but,  in  the  event  of  a  surprise 
invasion,  it  would  take  thirty  days  to  concentrate  these  90,000  regu- 
lars and  militia  against  the  enemy."  (Scientific  American,  Jan.  ist, 
1916.) 

"At  a  moment  when  by  the  sheer  force  of  perfect  preparedness 
Germany  is  winning  victories  all  along  the  line  against  the  greater 
part  of  Europe  allied  against  her,  we  permit  our  army  to  sink  close 
to  the  point  of  inefficiency."  (New  York  American,  Oct.  31,  1914.) 

"America  is  wasteful,  chiefly  through  lack  of  efficient  organiza- 
tion. We  are  now  spending,  under  recent  military  legislation,  enor- 
mous sums  for  a  totally  obsolete  kind  of  regular  army.  .  .  .  We 
have  voted  to  build  a  large  navy,  and  are  taxing  the  people  to  pay 
immense  bills,  but  have  not  enough  collective  efficiency  to  spend 
the  money  and  get  prompt  results."  (Review  of  Reviews,  Feb., 
1917.) 

"Secretary  Garrison  has  shown  us  that  the  entire  army  of  the 
United  States  available  for  movement  to  a  point  of  danger  is  less 
than  three  times  the  number  of  New  York's  policemen."  (Review 
of  Reviews,  Feb.,  1916.) 

Here  is  the  case  of  England,  another  democracy,  presented 
in  an  extract  from  an  article  in  the  North  American  Review 
for  July,  1918,  by  A.  Maurice  Low: 

"When  England  entered  the  war  against  Germany  it  was  not  ex- 
actly with  a  light  heart,  but  it  was  only  with  a  faint  conception  of 
the  magnitude  of  the  task  she  faced  and  the  strain  it  would  im- 
pose upon  her.  Instead  of  immediately  adopting  conscription,  she 


INEFFICIENCY   IN    FOREIGN   AFFAIRS  301 

dallied  with  it,  talked  about  it,  made  it  a  political  question,  and  then 
accepted  a  compromise,  which  is  the  usual  English  fashion,  and  only 
when  much  valuable  time  had  been  lost  and  the  emergency  was  so 
great  that  further  delay  was  impossible,  universal  service  was  en- 
forced. It  was  the  same  with  many  other  things.  The  blockade 
of  Germany  was  lax  because  of  the  timidity  of  the  Foreign  Office. 
Business  as  usual  was  our  boast,  and  we  went  about  our  several 
ways  spending  money  foolishly  and  refusing  to  be  put  on  rations 
or  voluntarily  reducing  our  consumption  of  luxuries.  .  .  .  Time,  of 
course,  taught  us  wisdom.  We  bought  our  experience  and  a 
pretty  price  it  cost  us." 

Not  only  were  the  American  people  unprepared  for  physical 
action  of  any  kind  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  of  1914,  but  the 
Congress  then  sitting  in  Washington  was  mentally  unprepared 
and  unequipped  for  dealing  with  that  or  any  similar  situation. 
It  needed  first  rate  men;  and  manhood  suffrage  furnished  and 
is  still  furnishing  the  Capitol  with  a  supply  of  third  and  fourth 
raters.  It  is  not  merely  that  they  were  wrong  on  the  European 
situation;  the  fact  is  that  they  were  nowhere;  that  a  large 
proportion  of  them  had  no  opinions  whatever  on  the  questions 
involved  in  the  conflict,  and  were  incapable  of  forming  any; 
they  were  absolutely  ignorant  of  European  politics;  were  un- 
able to  read  a  French  newspaper  or  to  understand  the  political 
discussions  of  an  English  one;  a  few  or  none  of  them  had  ever 
made  an  adequate  preparation  for  a  congressional  career;  they 
were  mere  vote-getters,  representatives  of  the  political  ma- 
chines of  their  respective  districts;  they  waited  for  the  news- 
papers to  tell  them  what  was  the  popular  thing  and  for  the 
bosses  to  inform  them  as  to  the  strength  of  the  German  vote. 
At  every  step  in  the  nation's  progress  from  August  1914  to 
the  declaration  of  the  state  of  war  in  February  1917  the 
country  and  the  President  showed  plainly  that  they  did  not 
trust  Congress;  and  Congress  showed  plainly  that  it  did  not 
deserve  to  be  trusted  in  such  an  emergency.  Neither  the  man- 
hood suffrage  Congress  nor  the  manhood  suffrage  administra- 
tion nor  its  political  opponents  in  Congress  took  the  lead  at 


302      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

any  time  during  this  fateful  period  in  forming,  enlightening, 
instructing  or  fixing  public  opinion;  they  lacked  courage  and 
statesmanship  to  do  it,  and  the  nation  finally  got  into  the  war 
by  the  process  of  drifting  stern  foremost.  Once  in,  and  blood 
drawn,  real  work  began  with  the  officers  of  the  army  and  navy 
acting  and  compelling  action;  and  after  all  when  it  comes  to 
waving  the  banner  and  making  appropriations  our  congressmen 
are  seldom  derelict. 

The  popular  belief  in  the  inefficiency  of  the  Federal  govern- 
ment, and  the  mischievous  operation  of  the  rabble  vote,  are 
manifested  by  the  unwarranted  meddling  of  individuals  and 
groups  of  individuals  with  the  administration  of  our  foreign 
affairs.  Any  one  looking  into  the  New  York  Times  on  a  cer- 
tain day  in  July  in  the  year  of  grace  1919  might  have 
there  read  of  the  activities  of  the  "National  Association  for 
the  Protection  of  American  Rights  in  Mexico,"  whose  princi- 
pal offices  are  in  New  York  City  and  which  seems  to  be  a  regu- 
larly organized  and  possibly  incorporated  body  with  directors 
and  other  officers.  The  intentions  of  the  members  of  this 
association  may  be  innocent  enough,  yet  the  fact  is  undeniable 
that  the  United  States  is  and  ought  to  be  the  true  and  only 
"National  Association  for  the  Protection  of  American  Rights" 
not  only  in  Mexico  but  everywhere;  and  it  is  difficult  to 
imagine  just  what  this  Society  can  perform  in  pursuance  of 
its  avowed  purpose  without  undue  interference  with  the  sov- 
ereignty and  proper  functions  of  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment, and  without  endangering  the  peace  of  the  two  countries 
mainly  affected.  And  although  the  whole  community  ought 
to  have  been  shocked  at  an  organized  movement  founded  on 
a  contempt  for  the  Federal  government  and  a  belief  in  its 
incompetence  or  worse,  it  seemed  to  excite  no  comment,  and 
there  was  probably  little  notice  taken  of  this  particular  half 
column  of  the  newspaper  except  by  those  directly  interested 
in  Mexican  affairs.  In  the  same  and  other  newspapers  of  the 
same  week  were  items  of  news  concerning  an  agitation  openly 
being  carried  on  in  New  York,  Boston,  and  other  large  Ameri- 


INEFFICIENCY   IN   FOREIGN   AFFAIRS  303 

can  cities  to  forcibly  overthrow  the  government  of  Great 
Britain,  as  it  actually  exists  in  Ireland,  and  to  establish  in  its 
place  not  merely  another  government,  but  another  form  of 
government.  At  the  very  time  this  scandalous  agitation  was 
being  promoted  by  solicitations,  subscriptions  and  collections  of 
money,  and  the  usual  acessories  of  dinners,  receptions  and 
bunkum  speeches  by  politicians,  the  United  States  was  just 
finishing  a  great  war  in  practical  alliance  with  Great  Britain; 
the  moral  ties  which  bound  the  two  nations  were  of  the 
strongest;  each  owed  its  very  existence  at  that  moment  to  the 
other;  and  the  two  had  just  signed  a  compact  binding  them 
to  unite  in  defense  of  France.  The  proposals  of  the  agitators, 
if  they  meant  anything  practicable,  were  therefore  in  every 
way  improper  and  seditious;  they  included  a  breach  of  faith 
toward  Great  Britain,  a  betrayal  of  France  and  a  disregard 
of  the  best  interests  of  the  United  States.  It  is  true  that  few 
take  these  agitators  seriously  or  believe  that  they  will  attempt 
a  revolution  in  Ireland  or  that  if  they  should  they  could  pos- 
sibly succeed;  it  is  doubtful  if  all  the  world  combined  would 
be  able  to  wrest  Ireland  from  England  by  force;  it  is  true  also 
that  the  majority  of  the  American  people  probably  believe  that 
the  so  called  Irish  grievances  have  no  substantial  existence, 
and  really  mean  no  more  that  the  exclusion  from  power  of  a  set 
of  political  adventurers.  But  the  agitators  count  on  the  well- 
known  weaknesses  of  the  British  and  American  governments, 
both  chosen  by  universal  suffrage,  and  the  equally  well-known 
fact  that  a  minority  if  sufficiently  well-organized  and  impudent 
can  bully  and  humbug  its  way  along  far  enough  to  be  certain 
to  get  money  and  place  for  its  chiefs  and  always  with  a  chance 
of  some  substantial  concessions  to  its  desires.  Already  the 
money  is  coming  in,  and  the  leaders  are  living  in  luxury,  at 
the  expense  not  merely  of  their  dupes  but  of  the  friendly  re- 
lations of  the  United  States  with  Great  Britain  and  Canada 
and  of  its  reputation  for  good  faith  in  its  foreign  relations. 

The  nation  is  in  constant  danger  of  being  pushed  into  seri- 
ous difficulties  by  the  interested  meddling  with  its  foreign 


304      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

affairs  of  political  adventurers  and  fanatics  who  would  never 
think  of  daring  to  thus  insult  and  interfere  with  a  government 
founded  upon  an  electorate  composed  of  the  propertied  and 
intelligent  classes,  nor  to  bully  a  Congress  representing  them. 
For  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  immediate  effect  of 
excluding  the  irresponsible  voters  from  the  congressional  elec- 
tions would  be  to  smash  the  machines,  and  to  clear  the  way 
for  such  an  improved  representation  in  Congress,  as  would 
certainly  be  demanded  by  a  constituency  of  men  of  substance 
and  education.  To  sit  in  Congress  might  become  once  more 
a  distinction  worthy  of  the  ambition  of  proud,  honorable  and 
able  men;  the  standard  of  its  membership  would  be  sensibly 
elevated;  the  administration  backed  or  criticised  as  the  case 
might  be  by  a  really  able  and  high-minded  Congress  would 
at  once  be  stimulated  and  encouraged  to  energetic  action  on 
the  highest  attainable  level,  and  America  would  present  as 
she  ought  a  firm  and  thoroughly  intelligent  attitude  towards 
the  rest  of  the  world. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

ROTATION  IN  OFFICE;  A  MISCHIEVOUS  BY-PRODUCT  OF  THE 
MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  DOCTRINE  AND  ANOTHER  FACTOR 
IN  POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT;  AND  HEREIN  OF  CIR- 
CUMLOCUTION OFFICE  REFORM. 

ONE  of  the  incidents  of  manhood  suffrage  is  the  practice  of 
rotation  in  office,  which  may  be  called  a  by-product  of  man- 
hood suffrage  and  represents  a  doctrine  which  is  only  applic- 
able to  machine  politics.  It  is  sometimes  supposed  to  mean 
that  a  public  office  is  a  desirable  job  at  which  every  man 
should  have  his  turn;  but  this  arrangement  is  impossible,  since 
there  are  not  nearly  offices  enough  for  that  purpose  even  with 
replacements  once  a  year,  which  is  the  limit  of  frequency  thus 
far  proposed  for  office  shifts;  and  although  the  politicians  are 
assiduous  in  making  new  laws  and  creating  new  officials  to 
enforce  these  laws;  who  are  to  be  found  registering,  recording, 
inspecting  and  reporting  in  every  possible  direction;  though 
they  discourage  diligence  in  office  and  encourage  short  hours 
and  idleness  in  office  holders,  so  as  to  still  leave  a  show  of  em- 
ployment for  others;  yet  with  all  they  can  do,  there  will  still 
be  one  hundred  candidates  for  each  place,  and  ninety-nine  of 
them  disappointed.  In  practice  therefore  the  bestowal  of  good 
offices  under  the  rotation  system  is  necessarily  limited;  its 
benefits  are  usually  confined  to  the  machine  politicians  and  to 
a  certain  number  of  favored  candidates  for  machine  favor; 
and  the  vision  of  a  future  turn  at  the  public  provender  is  for 
most  party  followers  altogether  illusory. 

The  doctrine  of  rotation  in  office  has  acquired  a  certain 
favor  in  political  circles,  because  it  serves  as  an  excuse  for 
replacing  competent  and  experienced  officials  by  new  and  in- 

305 


3O6      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN    THE   UNITED    STATES 

competent  ones,  for  enforcing  the  "spoils"  system,  and  aids 
in  keeping  in  hand  the  controllable  vote. 

It  is  born  of  the  same  civic  immorality  as  the  manhood 
suffrage  doctrine,  and  is  an  incident  or  offshoot  of  the  vicious 
theory  that  the  vote  is  a  natural  right  or  privilege  of  the 
citizen.  The  manhood  suffrage  claim  is  that  the  vote  is  for 
the  benefit  of  the  voter ;  the  rotation  doctrine  is  that  the  office 
exists  for  the  advantage  of  the  office  holder.  The  two  claims 
are  related.  On  the  one  hand  if  the  vote  be  regarded  as  a 
function  to  be  exercised  only  by  the  capable,  then  it  is  easy 
and  natural  to  insist  upon  proper  qualifications  for  public 
office  holders  and  for  permanency  in  office  for  the  qualified; 
on  the  other  hand,  if  the  citizen,  as  such,  has  an  absolute  right 
to  vote,  why  not  to  hold  office?  The  analogy  between  a  voter 
and  an  office  holder  is  not  perfect,  but  it  has  often  been  found 
in  practice  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  popular  mind,  unaccus- 
tomed to  disinterested  reflections.  You  may  say  that  the  fact 
that  a  man  is  allowed  to  vote  is  no  reason  why  he  should  be 
permitted  to  hold  office,  and  business  men  or  men  of  property 
will  agree  with  you,  for  they  are  not  easily  tempted  to  seek 
public  employment.  Not  so,  however,  your  voter  who  has 
neither  property  nor  settled  income,  nor  business  capacity 
sufficient  to  acquire  either.  His  education  often  early  tends 
towards  office  seeking;  he  is  strongly  advised  by  the  news- 
papers and  by  twaddlers  generally,  to  take  part  in  the 
primaries,  to  become  active  in  politics;  and  if  he  does  so,  he 
soon  learns  just  how  the  thing  is  done.  Why  may  not  he  then 
have  a  turn  at  the  trough  as  well  as  another?  The  politicians 
encourage  this  attitude.  They  are  of  course  strongly  in  favor 
of  rotation  in  office  as  a  system  which  is  in  every  way  capable 
of  use  to  the  advantage  of  machine  politics.  It  accomplishes 
two  things  for  them;  it  creates  office  vacancies,  and  it  dis- 
penses with  merit  in  filling  them,  leaving  them  absolutely  at 
the  disposition  of  the  machine  to  reward  party  services.  The 
politicians  therefore  are  able  and  willing  to  persuade  the  un- 
educated voters  of  the  virtue  of  office  rotation.  Nor  could 


MANHOOD   SUFFRAGE  AND  ROTATION  IN   OFFICE         307 

they  well  openly  condemn  it.  You  cannot  admit  the  shiftless 
and  ignorant  into  the  electorate,  and  then  systematically  spurn 
the  ideas  and  claims  which  are  natural  and  appropriate  to  them 
as  a  class.  One  of  these  ideas  is,  that  one  who  has  held  any 
office  a  couple  of  years  has  had  a  fair  share,  and  ought  to  be 
satisfied  to  give  way  to  someone  else;  and  that  if  he  insists  on 
coming  up  for  re-election  no  matter  how  competent  he  may 
be,  he  should  be  "knifed"  as  they  say.  And  so  we  have  in 
this  country  to  a  mischievous  extent  the  doctrine  and  system 
of  rotation  in  office  as  one  of  the  troublesome  and  vicious 
incidents  and  results  of  manhood  suffrage. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  dealings  of  the  political  managers 
with  this  rotation  doctrine,  which  as  already  stated  is  im- 
possible of  practical  enforcement  except  in  a  very  limited  way. 
They  have  no  idea  of  permitting  this  or  any  other  theory  to 
operate  to  their  personal  disadvantage.  The  leaders  must  in 
any  case  be  constantly  fed  at  the  public  crib;  they  must  in 
any  event  be  well  provided  for  or  the  whole  system  would 
collapse.  In  order  therefore  to  keep  up  the  illusion  of  rota- 
tion for  all,  and  a  show  of  fairness,  the  managers  are  constantly 
shifted  about  from  one  office  to  another.  In  this  way  there 
is  in  fact  a  continuing  series  of  changes  among  the  office 
holders;  and  as  a  rule  no  sooner  does  an  incumbent  become 
familiar  with  his  duties  than  he  is  displaced;  but  if  he  be  a 
faithful  party  man  he  is  at  once  put  on  the  list  for  something 
else.  In  fact,  all  of  the  class  of  regular  politicians  are  practi- 
cally in  office  for  life;  the  only  effect  of  our  frequent  elections 
being  that  they  are  constantly  shifted  from  one  office  to  an- 
other. If  any  one  will  take  the  trouble  to  compare  the  list 
of  office-holders  from  year  to  year,  he  will  see  that  most  of 
the  names  appear  in  successive  administrations;  but  that 
they  are  moved  from  place  to  place  with  the  change  in  the 
political  fortunes  of  the  different  parties.  When  a  candidate 
is  defeated  at  an  election,  he  is  usually,  if  a  good  politician, 
soon  afterwards  appointed  to  another  office;  if  necessary,  a  new 
office  is  created  for  him.  If  defeated  at  a  city  election,  he 


308      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

may  be  appointed  to  a  federal  office;  if  his  party  loses  the 
federal  election,  he  soons  turns  up  in  a  state  or  city  office, 
and  so  on;  and  so  we  have  in  the  career  of  a  politician  a  sort 
of  ambulatory  office  incumbency.  He  may  be  in  turn  tax 
collector,  district  attorney,  secretary  or  commissioner  of  this 
or  that,  judge  or  justice,  state  senator,  county  clerk,  foreign 
consul  and  so  on.  If  high  up  in  the  party,  he  will  appear  in 
the  president's  cabinet,  or  as  a  foreign  minister  or  as  member 
of  some  high  salaried  commission.  Being  a  politician  he  is 
supposed  to  be  eligible  for  anything  and  everything,  and  when 
at  last  he  dies  endowed  with  honors  and  with  usually  a  fair 
amount  of  cash  after  a  life  which  has  certainly  been  spent  in 
the  service  of  his  country,  his  newspaper  obituary  will  point 
out  to  an  edified  world  how  men  of  humble  origin  prosper  in 
this  free  land. 

This  system  has  the  effect  of  strengthening  party  discipline; 
under  it  every  office  holder  is  much  more  obligated  to  the  party 
boss  than  to  the  public.  True,  he  apparently  owes  his  elec- 
tion to  the  people;  but  usually  only  apparently;  since  most 
of  the  votes  he  receives  are  strictly  party  votes,  representing 
merely  the  will  and  the  direction  of  the  boss  and  the  machine. 
But  to  the  latter  the  candidate's  obligation  is  clear,  direct  and 
personal;  to  them  he  owes  his  nomination,  or  at  least  the 
suggestion  of  his  name  to  the  primaries  which  makes  his  elec- 
tion possible;  and  if  defeated  at  the  polls,  his  future  is  still 
in  their  friendly  hands.  The  party  leaders  and  managers 
being  thus  cared  for,  and  their  faithful  service  forever  secured 
by  the  distribution  among  them  of  all  the  best  public  employ- 
ments, guaranteed  by  the  rotation  system  developed  into  a 
"steady  job  insurance"  scheme,  there  remain  the  inferior 
county,  city,  town  and  village  offices  for  apportionment  among 
the  smaller  fry,  and  to  these  minor  places  a  real  rotation 
system  is  applied  to  a  greater  or  less  extent.  It  is  often  under- 
stood that  a  sheriff,  alderman,  tax  collector,  police  magistrate, 
town  solicitor  or  attorney,  county  clerk,  town  or  village  official, 
etc.,  must  be  satisfied  with  one  or  two  terms  and  then  give 


MANHOOD   SUFFRAGE  AND  ROTATION  IN   OFFICE         309 

place  to  some  other  more  hungry  politician.  This  is  the  rota- 
tion system  in  practice. 

The  demoralizing  results  of  such  a  custom  are  easy  to  be 
seen  among  us  and  still  more  easily  imagined.  Many  public 
office  holders  in  view  of  the  probable  brevity  of  their  tenure, 
try  to  hold  on  at  the  same  time  to  both  private  business  and 
public  office,  with  the  natural  result  that  both  are  neglected. 
Elections  are  expensive.  An  official  owing  last  election's  bills 
finds  the  next  one  approaching  with  marvellous  rapidity. 
From  rigid  enforcement  of  laws  enemies  might  result,  from 
whom  next  year's  candidate  need  expect  neither  money  nor 
support,  but  rather  opposition;  and  after  all,  one  year  in  office 
is  a  paltry  reward  for  a  faithful  party  man  after  many  years 
of  fruitless  canvassing.  And  so  comes  lax  administration, 
blinking  of  the  eyes  and  scandal  more  or  less  smothered.  And 
in  this  and  other  ways  the  character  of  the  office  holder  is 
impaired.  The  lure  of  this  kind  of  politics  is  as  demoralizing 
as  that  of  gambling.  Thousands  of  individuals  who  uncor- 
rupted  by  political  life  might  have  remained  honest  and  in- 
dustrious citizens,  are  spoiled  for  real  steady  work  by  their 
experience  of  easy  living  at  the  public  cost,  and  become  half 
knavish  and  altogether  poor  business  men,  and  sometimes  even 
debauched  and  intemperate.  And  if  the  office  holder  does  his 
very  best  it  usually  happens  that  just  when  he  has  learned  his 
duties  and  begins  to  perform  them  well,  his  term  approaches 
its  finish  and  a  greedy  greenhorn  takes  his  place. 

Everybody  knows  this  and  that  it  is  all  wrong.  No  one 
would  think  of  proposing  such  a  vicious  system  for  any  private 
business;  everyone  is  aware  that  employes  become  more  valu- 
able with  experience  and  training,  and  that  the  success  of  a 
business  establishment  depends  largely  upon  keeping  its  old 
force  in  service  year  after  year.  Indeed,  if  justice  requires 
rotation  in  the  well-salaried  offices,  the  system  should  be 
greatly  extended,  for  after  all,  these  political  offices  are  not 
the  real  prize  employments;  they  are  found  in  the  high 
places  in  banks,  banking  houses  and  great  industrial  and  mer- 


310      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN    THE   UNITED   STATES 

cantile  establishments.  But  no  one  suggests  than  in  a  democracy 
there  should  be  rotation  of  private  employment,  that  a  bank 
cashier  has  had  enough  after  two  years  of  $20,000  a  year  and 
that  a  mill  superintendent  should  retire  after  three  years  at 
$6,000  and  be  both  replaced,  one  by  a  patriotic  bank  porter 
and  the  other  by  a  radical  travelling  salesman.  The  service  of 
the  people  is  the  only  one  that  professional  patriots  insist  upon 
breaking  down  by  frequent  changes  in  the  working  force;  by 
constant  disorganization. 

The  reason  for  this  hard  treatment  of  the  public  service 
seems  to  be  that  it  sounds  democratic  and  alluring  to  say  that 
public  office  is  a  prize  open  to  all.  It  is  remarkable  how  willing 
people  are  to  be  gulled  by  catch  phrases  and  sayings,  like  this 
of  "rotation  in  office,"  "government  by  the  people,"  and  the 
like.  The  first  Napoleon  caught  a  lot  of  gudgeons  by  the  say- 
ing that  every  private  soldier  carried  a  marshal's  baton  in  his 
knapsack.  American  youths  are  gravely  told  that  each  of  them 
has  a  chance  to  become  president  of  the  United  States;  an- 
other humbug,  since  about  only  one  man  out  of  every  million 
can  possibly  reach  that  office,  no  matter  what  the  merits  or 
deeds  of  the  others  may  be.  Suppose  some  one  opens  Carne- 
gie Hall,  New  York,  free  to  all  comers  to  hear  Caruso  sing  at 
a  certain  day  and  hour;  no  one  could  say  that  he  was  excluded 
by  the  terms  of  the  invitation;  and  yet  the  manager  would 
know  perfectly  well  that  only  three  thousand  could  possibly 
be  admitted,  and  that  all  who  came  after  the  first  three  thou- 
sand would  better  have  stayed  at  home.  It  would  sound  to 
the  thoughtless  like  a  more  generous  and  democratic  act  than 
the  distribution  of  three  thousand  free  tickets,  and  yet  it 
would  in  reality  be  less  so;  it  would  indeed  have  somewhat 
the  effect  of  a  fraud  on  all  except  the  first  three  thousand.  Now 
something  like  this  invitation  is  what  is  offered  the  American 
people  when  they  are  each  invited,  as  they  constantly  are  in- 
vited, by  the  politicians  in  their  universal  suffrage  constitutions 
to  come  in  and  take  a  part  as  public  officials  in  the  government 
of  the  nation.  It  is  in  every  way  impossible  for  all  of  us,  or 


MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  AND  ROTATION   IN   OFFICE         311 

for  more  than  a  very  few  of  us  to  do  so;  and  all  they  really  can 
and  do  offer  us  is  just  what  we  would  have  under  a  restricted 
suffrage,  namely  leave  to  fight  or  wheedle  our  own  way  to 
public  employment  or  to  political  influence  in  the  face  of  all 
who  are  determined  to  forestall  us,  the  number  whereof  is  by 
these  very  constitutions  made  as  numerous  as  possible.  And 
the  so-called  democratic  invention  of  rotation  in  office  is  just 
another  worthless  and  fraudulent  gift,  of  leave  to  each  of  us, 
to  struggle  for  a  paltry  office  in  competition  with  every  politi- 
cal adventurer  in  the  community;  when  by  the  very  terms  of 
the  gift,  the  office  itself  is  stripped  of  all  honor  and  dignity, 
and  has  attached  to  it  the  certainty  that  the  winner  is  almost 
certain  to  be  deprived  of  the  employment  as  soon  as  he  shall 
have  learned  to  fill  it  with  ability  and  credit  to  himself.  Truly 
Barnum  was  right  when  he  undertook  to  build  his  fortune  on 
the  theory  that  most  people  love  to  be  humbugged. 

Such  are  the  ideals  and  practical  workings  of  the  democratic 
principle  of  rotation  in  office,  first  put  in  practice  by  President 
Jackson  and  his  party  managers,  animated  by  the  inspiring 
slogan  "to  the  victors  belong  the  spoils."  It  is  difficult  to 
imagine  any  system  more  calculated  than  this  to  establish  and 
encourage  inefficiency  in  public  and  private  life.  And  though 
in  consequence  of  the  endless  changes  of  officials  in  the  public 
service,  the  state  and  community  are  always  poorly  served, 
the  inferior  party  workers  seldom  get  a  turn  at  the  good  places ; 
they  are  just  fooled  by  the  higher  politicians  who,  while  pre- 
tending frequently  to  surrender  the  offices,  merely  exchange 
them  among  themselves.  Thus  the  masses  are  made  to  suffer 
all  the  evils  of  poor  and  dishonest  public  service,  without  even 
the  small  compensation  of  a  fair  turn  at  the  spoils. 

Vigorous  efforts  have  been  made  in  the  past  thirty  years  to 
obviate  some  of  the  mischiefs  of  the  spoils  system;  especially 
by  the  application  of  the  system  of  civil  service  examinations 
to  nominations  to  public  office.  Under  this  system  which  is 
only  applied  to  certain  classified  offices,  the  appointment  is 
supposed  to  be  given  to  the  candidate  who  passes  best  in  an 


312      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

examination  prepared  beforehand  by  a  civil  service  board  and 
open  to  all  applicants.  There  is  neither  space  nor  fitness  here 
for  an  extended  discussion  of  the  merits  ana  weaknesses  of  this 
Civil  Service  Reform  plan  as  it  is  called.  Its  one  pretended 
merit  is  that  it  takes  the  appointments  "out  of  politics"  as 
they  say,  that  is  out  of  the  control  of  the  political  heads  of  the 
departments.  No  more  crushing  condemnation  of  our  political 
system  could  be  imagined  than  is  contained  in  these  federal 
and  state  statutes  which  deprive  our  high  officials  of  the  power 
and  privilege  of  the  selection  of  many  of  their  own  subordinates, 
the  most  important  function  of  the  head  of  a  department.  That 
these  chiefs  should  be  furnished  with  advice  and  assistance  in 
making  appointments  where  numerous,  would  be  reasonable 
enough;  but  that  it  should  be  found  necessary  as  by  this  so- 
called  remedial  system  is  actually  done,  to  deprive  them  of  all 
choice,  direct  or  indirect,  in  the  selection  of  their  subordinates 
indicates  a  shocking  condition  of  things.  It  means  just  this 
that  the  men  whom  manhood  suffrage  puts  in  command  are 
declared  by  statute  to  be  unfit  to  be  trusted. 

The  defects  of  the  Civil  Service  Reform  plan  are  obvious, 
and  have  been  repeatedly  pointed  out.  There  are  two  princi- 
pal ones;  defects  in  material  and  weakness  in  organization.  All 
experience  shows  that  mere  ability  to  answer  questions  is  but 
slim  proof  of  actual  fitness  for  most  employments.  The  minds 
of  the  successful  candidates  are  apt  to  be  storehouses  of  mem- 
ory rather  than  factories  of  living  ideas.  The  tendency  of  the 
examination  system  must  be  to  emasculate  the  public  service, 
to  furnish  it  with  half-hearted  hirelings,  destitute  of  initiative; 
routinists,  who  secure  in  their  places  and  deprived  of  incentive 
to  new  achievement,  gradually  become  mere  wooden  cogs  in  a 
lifeless  machine.  The  head  of  such  a  force  cannot  be  expected 
to  accomplish  much  with  men  not  chosen  by  him  nor  subject 
to  his  censure  or  removal.  Such  a  civil  service  will  be  weak  in 
time  of  prosperity,  and  may  become  intolerable  in  time  of 
trouble  and  danger;  an  institution  similar  to  the  bureaucracies 
of  continental  Europe  or  to  Charles  Dickens'  "Circumlocution 


MANHOOD   SUFFRAGE  AND  ROTATION   IN   OFFICE         313 

Office."  The  late  Andrew  Carnegie,  the  great  iron  master, 
ascribed  his  success  entirely  to  his  luck  and  wisdom  in  choos- 
ing his  deputies.  A  political  department  is  really  a  business 
organization,  and  to  be  efficient,  it  should  have  a  competent 
head  supported  by  a  force  of  vigorous  men  of  his  own  selec- 
tion; chosen  not  by  book  examinations,  but  for  practical  ca- 
pacity, all  constantly  guided  and  controlled  by  him,  and  in- 
spired with  the  feeling  of  mutual  responsibility  for  results.  The 
vice  of  the  Civil  Service  Reform  system  is  that  it  entirely  lacks 
the  vigor  and  effciency  thus  to  be  obtained. 

No  better  proof  of  the  hopeless  desperation  of  the  American 
political  reformers  can  be  offered  than  their  willingness  even  to 
consider  the  establishment  of  this  bureaucratic  system  among 
us.  Bryce  approves  it  with  the  approval  of  despair: 

"Rather,  they  would  say,  interdict  office  holders  from  participa- 
tion in  politics;  appoint  them  by  competition,  however  absurd  com- 
petition may  sometimes  appear,  choose  them  by  lot,  like  the  Athe- 
nians and  Florentines;  only  do  not  let  offices  be  tenable  at  the 
pleasure  of  party  chiefs  and  lie  in  the  uncontrolled  patronage  of 
persons  who  can  use  them  to  strengthen  their  own  political  position." 
(American  Commonwealth,  Vol.  II,  p.  609.) 

The  present  writer  has  been  unable  to  think  of  anything 
worse  to  say  of  our  present  system  of  political  appointments 
than  this  statement  that  it  is  worse  than  appointments  by  lot. 
Let  it  go  at  that. 

This  is  not  the  only  country  where  men  are  dazzled  by  a 
vision  of  rotation  in  office.  The  golden  dream  of  public  place 
as  an  idle  refuge,  to  be  occupied  in  turn  by  lucky  politicians, 
with  opportunity  for  respectable  theft,  is  much  indulged  in 
in  Cuba  and  the  Central  and  South  American  republics,  and 
assists  in  the  promotion  of  revolutions  in  those  countries. 
They  feel  there,  that  a  bright  and  active  man  in  a  good  office, 
ought  to  be  able  in  from  three  to  five  years  to  steal  his  share, 
and  should  then  be  willing  to  retire  in  favor  of  someone  else. 
For  similar  reasons,  a  political  party  should  go  out  every  few 


314      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

years  and  give  the  others  a  chance.  This  doctrine  is  accepted 
even  by  independent  onlookers  of  those  countries,  who  often 
sympathize  with  the  hungry  outs  in  their  natural  desire  to  get 
their  turn  at  the  public  chest.  And  this  is  why,  when 
President  Menocal's  first  Cuban  term  of  four  years  expired, 
the  opposition  felt  so  outraged  that  he  and  his  party  should 
not  be  willing  to  rotate  out  of  office,  that  a  revolution  would 
probably  have  supervened  had  it  not  been  for  the  Platt  Amend- 
ment. The  faults  of  foreigners  are  very  conspicuous  in  our 
eyes,  and  therefore  the  reader  will  surely  agree  that  these 
foreign  gangs  of  political  adventurers,  whose  only  thought  of 
their  country  is  to  drain  her  blood,  are  a  scurvy  and  contemp- 
tible lot,  whose  greed  and  lack  of  patriotism  are  abominable. 
As  for  our  own  professional  office  seekers,  now  planning  for 
their  next  turn  it  is  safest  to  say  nothing;  they  may  be  our 
masters  in  a  few  days  or  months,  and  prudence  is  a  profitable 
virtue. 


CHAPTER   XX 

THE  EFFECT  OF  THE  OPERATION  OF  MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE 
HAS  BEEN  TO  GIVE  A  LOWER  TONE  TO  AMERICAN 
PUBLIC  LIFE. 

THERE  is  a  quality  in  an  individual,  an  association  of  in- 
dividuals, a  community  or  a  public  institution,  which  though 
difficult  to  describe  in  exact  terms  is  everywhere  well  recog- 
nized as  something  valuable  and  important,  and  is  often  re- 
ferred to  as  "tone"  or  "style"  or  "distinction."  A  youth  who 
goes  to  college,  travels,  and  then  enters  on  a  business  career 
acquires  in  ten  years  a  different  "tone"  from  his  homekeeping 
brother.  It  is  not  merely  dress,  or  manners,  or  education; 
it  is  separate  from  all  these;  it  produces  an  effort  comparable 
to  that  of  the  toning  up  of  a  musical  instrument,  and  applies 
to  the  man's  acts,  gestures,  and  thoughts;  giving  him  a  dif- 
ferent and  mayhap  higher  place  in  the  world  and  in  the  regard 
of  his  fellows.  So  we  find  clubs,  associations,  communities 
whose  tone  is  higher  or  lower  than  others,  and  are  therefore 
esteemed  or  contemned  accordingly.  The  tone  of  an  institution 
sensibly  affects  its  character;  we  feel  its  influence  and  are 
affected  by  it.  No  one  for  instance,  can  visit  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  or  West  Point  Academy  without 
immediately  appreciating  the  superior  tone  or  atmosphere  of 
the  institution.  And  so  the  government  of  a  nation,  its  public 
life,  has  a  tone,  an  atmosphere  which  all  the  world  recognizes 
as  higher  or  lower  in  quality  than  that  found  elsewhere.  The 
tone  of  the  administrations  of  the  early  presidents  from 
George  Washington  to  John  Quincy  Adams,  covering  a  period 
of  forty  years,  was  high;  all  the  world  recognized  the  fact; 
Americans  were  proud  of  it;  it  was  something  of  a  value  not 

315 


316      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

to  be  measured  by  dollars,  nor  by  power  or  cleverness;  it  was 
a  fine  emanation  of  the  lofty  ambitions  and  high  traditions  of 
our  governing  class;  it  meant  that  our  country  was  ruled  and 
represented  by  gentlemen.  We  all  somehow  realize  that  that 
tone  and  atmosphere  have  vanished;  they  are  mere  memories, 
like  the  old  stage  coaches,  knee  breeches  and  hoopskirts  of  our 
ancestors;  and  now  we  have  a  low  tone  in  almost  every  depart- 
ment of  public  life;  in  some  of  them  it  is  even  mean  and  vulgar. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  offer  proof  of  this  statement,  the  fact 
is  practically  involved  in  much  that  has  been  already  presented 
to  the  reader  in  this  volume;  it  is  something  which  everyone 
can  confirm  who  has  had  much  contact  with  public  officials, 
or  who  is  familiar  with  the  daily  current  reports  concerning 
their  character  and  methods.  The  knavery  that  has  been  sys- 
tematically perpetrated  here,  under  the  name  of  politics  for 
the  last  three  generations,  could  not  possibly  have  gone  on, 
without  a  distinct  degradation  of  the  moral  and  social  tone  of 
our  political  life.  Lord  Bryce  though  a  liberal  in  politics  has 
discovered  that  the  attempt  of  the  multitude  to  govern  in- 
volves the  danger  of  "A  certain  commonness  of  mind  and  tone, 
"a  want  of  dignity  and  elevation  in  and  about  the  conduct  of 
"public  affairs,  and  insensibility  to  the  nobler  aspects  and  final 
"responsibilities  of  national  life"  and  that  such  a  tendency  is 
more  or  less  observable  in  the  United  States;  and  he  adds, 
"The  tone  of  public  life  is  lower  than  one  expects  to  find  it 
"in  so  great  a  nation.  .  .  .  In  no  country  is  the  ideal  side 
"of  public  life,  what  one  may  venture  to  call  the  heroic  ele- 
"ment  in  a  public  career,  so  ignored  by  the  mass  and  repudi- 
"ated  by  the  leaders.  This  affects  not  only  the  elevation  but 
"the  independence  and  courage  of  public  men;  and  the  country 
"suffers  from  the  want  of  what  we  call  distinction  in  its  con- 
"spicuous  force."  (Bryce,  American  Commonwealth,  Vol.  II, 
PP-  583-585.)  The  language  of  this  criticism  is  mild,  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  style  of  the  book,  which  is  that  of  studied 
friendliness  and  compliment  to  the  American  people  and  gov- 
ernment; but  the  plain  truth  is  there,  though  the  accents  are 


THE  LOW  TONE  OF  PUBLIC  LIFE  317 

gentle.  Lord  Bryce  was  disappointed  to  find  a  people  whom 
he  elsewhere  describes  in  this  same  book  as  generous,  high- 
minded  and  patriotic,  in  the  political  control  of  a  lot  of  low 
politicians.  The  learned  author,  in  common  with  some  Ameri- 
can writers,  professes  to  be  at  a  loss  to  account  for  this  sad 
state  of  things;  there  has  been  a  remarkable  shutting  of  eyes 
to  the  sins  of  manhood  suffrage.  But  it  is  impossible  to  deny 
that  the  low  public  tone  which  we  have  all  observed  and  all 
regret  came  in  with  that  institution. 
This  is  from  another  eminent  writer: 

"There  is  a  risk  of  vulgarizing  the  whole  tone,  method  and  con- 
duct of  public  business.  We  see  how  completely  this  has  been  done 
in  North  America,  —  a  country  far  more  fitted,  at  least  in  the 
Northern  States,  for  the  democratic  experiment  than  any  old  coun- 
try can  be.  Nor  must  we  imagine  that  this  vulgarity  of  tone  is  a 
mere  external  expression,  not  affecting  the  substance  of  what  is 
thought  or  interfering  with  the  policy  of  the  nation;  no  defect 
really  eats  away  so  soon  the  political  ability  of  a  nation.  A  vulgar 
tone  of  discussion  disgusts  cultivated  minds  with  the  subject  of 
politics:  they  will  not  apply  themselves  to  master  a  topic  which  be- 
sides its  natural  difficulties,  is  encumbered  with  disgusting  phrases, 
low  arguments,  and  the  undisguised  language  of  coarse  selfishness." 
(Bagehot,  Parliamentary  Reform,  p.  316.) 

Treitschke  on  this  subject  utters  a  despairing  note. 

"The  strongest  lungs  always  prevail  with  the  mob,  and  there  is 
now  no  hope  of  eliminating  that  peculiar  touch  of  brutality  and  that 
coarsening  and  vulgarizing  element  which  has  entered  into  public 
life.  These  consequences  are  unavoidable,  and  undoubtedly  react 
upon  the  whole  moral  outlook  of  the  people;  just  as  the  unchecked 
railing  and  lying  of  the  platform  corrupts  the  tone  of  daily  inter- 
course. Beyond  this  comes  the  further  danger  that  the  really  edu- 
cated classes  withdraw  more  and  more  from  a  political  struggle 
which  adopts  such  methods."  (Politics,  Vol.  II,  p.  198.) 

A  low  tone  is  the  sign  and  indication  of  low  ideals,  which 
dwelling  with  and  in  a  man  or  institution  influence  his  or  its 
thought,  act  and  self  manifestation.  The  ideals  of  cheap  and 


318      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

common  men,  and  of  those  who  live  by  catering  to  them,  are 
alike  cheap  and  common.  There  is  a  politics  which  consists 
of  a  study  of  principles  applied  to  government;  in  that  pursuit 
the  ideals  are  necessarily  lofty;  it  was  their  presence  which 
gave  the  tone  to  the  administrations  of  the  first  six  presidents. 
There  is  a  politics  which  consists  in  a  systematic  pursuit  of 
jobs  and  places;  it  is  that  which  has  mainly  characterized 
the  administrations  from  Jackson  downwards.  The  resultant 
loss  to  the  nation  is  additional  to  that  caused  by  the  waste,  in- 
efficiency, mismanagement  and  political  despotism  already  de- 
scribed; and  though  this  lowering  of  tone  is  of  course  implied 
in  the  decline  of  political  morals  heretofore  discussed,  it  yet 
constitutes  a  separate  and  additional  public  misfortune.  We 
can  imagine  a  moral  descent  without  a  corresponding  falling 
off  in  outward  behavior,  as  in  the  French  Court  of  Louis  XV; 
but  in  our  country,  the  two  declines  have  been  contempo- 
raneous. 

Much  will  have  to  be  done  before  this  can  be  corrected,  but 
one  remedy  is  absolutely  essential,  and  that  is  the  elevation 
and  perfection  of  the  electorate.  The  degradation  of  the  tone 
and  destruction  of  the  old-time  dignity  of  American  political 
life  which  we  all  so  much  deplore  is  the  work  of  manhood 
suffrage,  immediately  followed  it,  belongs  to  it  and  is  insepa- 
rable from  it.  If  we  would  restore  tone  and  dignity  to  our 
politics  we  must  begin  with  the  electorate;  we  must  create  a 
body  of  unpurchasable  voters;  men  who  have  shown  that  they 
are  free  from  the  ordinary  temptations  of  corrupt  politics  by 
earning  a  good  living  in  other  ways  which  they  have  preferred 
to  politics;  men  pecuniarily  independent,  who  have  a  stake 
in  the  country;  something,  nay  much  to  lose,  and  nothing  to 
gain  by  misgovernment;  men,  therefore,  whose  ideals  in  gov- 
ernment matters  are  purity  and  efficiency.  By  that  class  of 
prosperous  middle  class  men,  high  ideals  may  be  and  always 
have  been  adopted;  they  are  of  the  proper  combination  of 
energy,  capacity  and  independence.  It  is  impossible  for  most 
men  to  cultivate  lofty  ideals  when  they  are  hourly  struggling 


THE  LOW  TONE  OF  PUBLIC  LIFE  319 

for  a  mere  subsistence;  one  cannot  think  philosophically  when 
he  is  in  actual  need,  nor  when  in  danger  of  being  in  need. 
No  part  of  the  burden  of  government  should  be  put  upon  such 
shoulders  as  those  of  the  needy  class,  the  residuum,  the  dere- 
licts, the  pecuniarily  unfortunates  or  incapables  of  our  civiliza- 
tion. We  can  only  elevate  our  political  tone  to  the  level  of 
the  time  of  Washington  and  John  Quincy  Adams  by  elevating 
our  electorate  to  the  plane  which  it  occupied  when  it  selected 
them  and  others  of  their  type  to  represent  it  in  the  high  places 
of  government. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

GENERAL  PRIVATE  AND  PUBLIC  CONDEMNATION  BY  THE 
INTELLIGENT  CLASSES  OF  MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE  POLITICS 
AND  GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES;  AND  HERE- 
IN OF  WATCH  DOGS  AND  YELLOW  DOGS. 

A  GOOD  test  of  the  character  of  a  man  or  an  institution  is 
public  reputation;  let  us  apply  that  test  in  this  case.  Man- 
hood suffrage,  its  methods,  its  politics,  and  its  officialdom  are 
generally  not  merely  distrusted,  but  scorned,  held  in  utter  con- 
tempt and  openly  repudiated  by  the  most  intelligent  classes 
of  Americans.  With  the  exception  of  a  few  among  them  who 
consider  it  their  bounden  duty  to  do  civic  missionary  work, 
those  classes  take  no  active  part  in  politics;  many  of  them  do 
not  even  vote,  others  only  vote  for  president,  entirely  disre- 
garding state  and  local  elections;  most  of  them  totally  neglect 
the  primaries;  many  of  them  do  not  even  know  the  names  of 
their  representatives  in  Congress.  As  for  the  obscure  poli- 
ticians who  sit  in  the  city  and  state  legislatures  they  are  ab- 
solutely beneath  the  social  or  political  vision  of  most  of  our 
well-to-do  and  well-educated  people.  No  really  worldly  wise 
American  father  recommends  his  son  to  enter  public  life;  its 
snares  and  dangers  and  the  lack  of  esteem  in  which  public 
officials  are  held  are  too  well  known.  Of  course  to  many 
ambitious  and  inexperienced  young  men  there  is  much  temp- 
tation in  a  political  career.  The  prospect  of  addressing  po- 
litical meetings,  of  being  called  "Senator"  or  "Judge/'  of 
receiving  mail  addressed  "Hon.,"  of  dealing  with  public 
measures,  and  of  figuring  in  the  newspapers,  is  alluring  to 
many  a  young  college  graduate;  while  poor  young  lawyers  are 
often  tempted  to  struggle  for  public  office  by  the  salary  at- 

320 


GENERAL    ILL    REPUTE    OF    MANHOOD    SUFFRAGE         321 

tached  thereto.  They  find  later  that  the  reward  of  politics  is 
Dead  Sea  fruit  that  turns  to  ashes  on  the  lips;  even  the  suc- 
cessful ones  are  usually  disappointed;  the  pay  is  small;  it  is 
part  of  the  manhood  suffrage  meanness  to  court  the  applause 
of  the  low-waged  rabble  or  the  no-wage  loafers  by  keeping 
down  official  salaries;  the  incidental  expenses  are  many  and 
annoying,  including  small  loans  to  hangers  on  and  other  petty 
exactions;  to  get  money  out  of  politics  it  is  necessary  to  be 
crafty  and  more  or  less  dishonest.  The  young  adventurer  is 
disappointed  in  his  aspirations  for  glory;  the  newspaper 
notices  are  few  and  frequently  uncomplimentary;  he  finds  that 
the  platform  at  public  meetings  is  usually  reserved  either  for 
a  notoriety  of  some  sort  or  a  blatherskite;  and  instead  of  en- 
joying public  respect  he  encounters  a  pushing  familiarity, 
which  is  most  offensive  even  when  it  comes  disguised  as  flattery 
from  obsequious  job  hunters.  Probably  no  business  or  pro- 
fession has  been  in  such  disrepute,  or  has  offered  so  much  that 
is  mean,  sordid  and  repulsive  to  a  noble  nature,  as  has  politics 
since  manhood  suffrage  was  ordained  in  this  country. 

Under  the  property  qualification  regime  young  politicians 
had  the  inspiration  of  great  and  highly  respected  leaders,  and 
the  incentive  of  a  prospect  of  ultimately  filling  their  places. 
Among  such  leaders  in  New  York  in  the  first  quarter  of  the 
nineteenth  century  were  Alexander  Hamilton;  John  Jay;  James 
Kent;  De  Witt  Clinton;  John  Lansing;  Rufus  King;  Gouver- 
neur  Morris;  Robert  R.  Livingston;  Brockholst  Livingston; 
William  W.  Van  Ness;  Daniel  D.  Tompkins;  Nicholas  Fish; 
Erastus  Root;  John  C.  Spencer  and  William  L.  Marcy;  fifteen 
distinguished  names;  a  number  proportionately  according  to 
population  equivalent  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  at  the  present 
time.  Each  of  them  was  eminent  in  something;  most  of  them 
in  several  things;  and  all  are  still  illustrious  in  the  annals  of 
the  state.  Some  of  their  political  acts  are  open  to  criticism, 
but  they  were  all  men  of  superior  mentality,  for  the  old  system 
put  the  best  brains  we  had  into  politics,  while  the  present 
system  inevitably  puts  into  public  place  the  cheapest  and 


322      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

poorest,  so  that  we  are  now,  as  Bagehot  says,  "deprived  of 
"the  tangible  benefits  we  derive  from  the  application  to  politics 
"of  thoroughly  cultivated  minds." 

The  present  public  attitude  towards  officialdom  not  only  in- 
dicates a  steady  consciousness  of  its  inferiority,  but  a  disbe- 
lief in  its  honesty  and  a  plain  distrust  of  its  intentions.  By 
many  persons,  officialdom  and  the  people  are  supposed  to  be 
engaged  in  chronic  warfare,  and  office  holders  as  soon  as 
chosen  are  assumed  to  be  potential  rascals;  so  that  it  becomes 
the  presumptive  duty  of  every  patriotic  organization  and  of 
every  public-spirited  citizen  to  watch  their  every  movement 
and  to  sound  the  alarm  at  each  of  their  expected  attacks  on 
the  rights  of  the  people.  Eternal  vigilance  is  popularly  urged 
as  the  only  means  of  security  against  the  misconduct  or  calami- 
tous blundering  of  the  office-holding  politicians.  Nor  is  this 
attitude  confined  to  the  upper  classes.  Politicians  are  fond  of 
pretending  affection  for  the  working  people  and  that  the  man- 
hood suffrage  was  a  gift  especially  to  that  class.  But  none 
more  than  the  wage  earners  mistrust  politicians;  they  are  the 
first  to  suspect  official  misconduct,  and  the  most  outspoken  in 
its  denunciation.  Listen  to  their  comments  when  a  public 
question  comes  up  in  which  they  are  concerned.  They  are  not 
then  heard  to  say  that  their  interests  are  safe  in  the  hands  of 
the  good  officials  chosen  by  the  people;  they  are  more  apt  to 
complain  of  improper  influence,  "frame-ups,"  bribery  actually 
suspected  or  expected,  "playing  politics"  and  the  like.  Many 
of  them  in  despair  of  democracy  have  become  socialists,  and 
find  in  the  rascality  and  inefficiency  of  the  manhood  suffrage 
government  of  the  day  ample  material  for  argument.  The 
remainder  unable  to  see  any  possibility  of  a  remedy  usually 
assume  an  attitude  of  resignation,  evincing  a  desire  to  profit 
by  whatever  little  pickings  may  be  had  from  the  political 
feasts  of  the  more  fortunate.  The  attitude  of  the  intelligent 
middle  classes  is  more  frankly  hostile  and  aggressive  than  that 
of  the  wage  earners;  it  does  not,  unfortunately,  take  the  shape 
of  a  demand  for  a  higher  basis  for  suffrage,  but  of  a  persistent 


GENERAL    ILL    REPUTE    OF    MANHOOD    SUFFRAGE         323 

opposition  to  the  characteristic  operations  of  manhood  suffrage 
government,  such  as  appropriation  of  the  spoils,  and  to  its 
various  political  expedients  to  please  the  rabble  or  bamboozle 
the  public.  It  is  practically  assumed  by  the  middle  class  citi- 
zen, that  officialdom  is  inimical  to  the  public  welfare;  and, 
especially  in  the  great  cities,  there  is  a  steady  and  outspoken 
demand  for  a  remedy  for  the  present  notorious  misgovernment; 
that  something  be  done  to  protect  Society  against  its  enemies, 
the  politicians  in  and  out  of  office. 

This  feeling  of  American  distrust  of  our  own  public  servants 
is  frequently  apparent  in  legislation  enacted  as  a  result  of  agi- 
tation following  one  of  the  numerous  revelations  of  official 
misconduct.  Thus,  in  some  cities  the  police  power  has  been 
taken  entirely  out  of  the  hands  of  the  local  authorities  and 
lodged  in  the  government  of  the  state.  One  reform  city 
charter  of  St.  Louis  provided  that  the  mayor  elected  for  four 
years  could  not  remove  any  official  till  his  own  third  year  in 
office.  These  and  many  similar  statutes  are  in  effect  formal 
assertions  of  the  complete  breakdown  of  manhood  suffrage; 
that  the  elected  municipal  officials  cannot  be  trusted  either  to 
police  the  city  or  to  remove  or  appoint  subordinate  officers. 
The  mayor  under  such  a  system  has  to  manage  the  best  he 
can  with  deputies  over  whom  he  has  little  or  no  control.  It 
seems  as  if  political  imbecility  could  go  no  farther  than  to 
create  a  system  under  which  the  mayor  of  the  city  is  certain 
to  be  untrustworthy  and  must  therefore  be  deprived  of  power 
to  control  his  subordinates.  And  yet  no  doubt  these  pro- 
visions were  but  the  recognition  of  the  desperate  situation  of 
a  manhood  suffrage  municipality.  In  one  of  the  instances  just 
referred  to  the  object  of  the  city  charter  seems  to  have  been 
to  vary  the  misery;  two  years  chaos  and  two  years  ring-rule, 
turnabout. 

This  feeling  of  despondent  suspicion  is  constantly  being 
voiced  by  the  middle-class  newspapers  and  by  groups  of  promi- 
nent citizens,  by  committees  of  fifty,  of  one  hundred,  etc.,  in 
circular  appeals  distributed  by  the  ten  thousand  to  all  men  of 


324      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

any  standing  in  the  community,  urging  them  to  "fight"  as  it 
is  called,  day  and  night,  to  save  the  town,  city,  county,  state 
and  nation  from  disaster.  A  stranger  reading  one  of  these 
urgent  calls  would  naturally  ask  with  curiosity  for  the  names 
of  the  enemies  to  be  thus  attacked;  are  they  Huns,  Bolsheviki, 
hoodlums,  gunmen,  rioters  or  what?  The  grotesquely  pathetic 
answer  is  that  they  are  all  our  neighbors,  our  fellow  citizens, 
nay,  our  "Honorable"  fellow  citizens;  elected  by  ourselves  by 
large  majorities  last  year,  last  month,  or  yesterday  perhaps, 
or  appointed  by  men  whom  we  have  ourselves  recently  elected; 
they  are  his  honor  the  mayor;  honorable  members  of  the 
city  or  state  legislature;  of  boards  of  supervisors;  of  Con- 
gress; of  this  and  that  public  commission;  of  the  state  govern- 
ments; officials  of  every  class,  both  elective  and  appointed, 
county,  city,  state,  and  federal.  It  is  not  against  hostile  out- 
siders or  natural  adversaries,  but  against  our  own  manhood 
suffrage  officials  that  we  have  to  "fight";  it  is  these  officials 
and  their  associates,  agents,  and  party  superiors  or  "bosses" 
who  we  are  told  by  press  and  pulpit,  in  newspaper,  book  and 
magazine,  in  private  conversation  and  in  public  address,  and 
above  all  at  the  meetings  of  independent  citizens  and  re- 
formers, are  the  actual  or  potential  enemies,  furtive  or  open, 
conscious  or  unconscious,  of  good  government,  of  our  pocket- 
books,  our  health,  our  comfort,  and  our  lives.  We  are  ur- 
gently reminded  that  our  manhood  suffrage  government  is  by 
no  means  to  be  trusted;  that  the  only  hope  of  tolerable  gov- 
ernment is  to  arouse  every  good  citizen  to  an  attitude  and  a 
habit  of  constant  distrust  of  our  chosen  representatives  and 
rulers  and  to  regard  them  with  sleepless  jealousy  and  suspi- 
cion. It  is  not  enough  to  vote;  you  must  attend  primaries; 
nay  more,  you  must  anticipate  the  primaries  and  plan  to  elect 
certain  primary  candidates  and  to  defeat  others;  even  when 
your  own  men  are  chosen,  you  cannot  safely  trust  them;  you 
must  doubt  every  member  of  Congress,  every  legislator  and 
every  official,  including  those  just  seated  by  your  own  vote; 
you  must  suspect  every  new  proposal,  every  legislative  bill, 


GENERAL  ILL  REPUTE  OF  MANHOOD  SUFFRAGE       325 

every  municipal  ordinance;  a  good  citizen  will  watch  them 
all;  he  will  at  private  expense  procure  advance  copies  of  all 
of  them;  he  will  if  he  can  employ  a  lawyer  to  study  them;  he 
will  join  all  kinds  of  political  organizations  and  attend  all  their 
meetings,  and  will  use  constant  vigilance  to  see  that  these  or- 
ganizations are  not  "captured"  or  purchased  by  the  politicians, 
and  that  he  himself  is  not  captured  without  suspecting  it,  so 
wily  are  these  political  experts  and  so  cunning  and  numerous  are 
the  snares  and  temptations  of  political  life.  Nor  is  even  this 
all;  he  must  work  up  and  join  deputations  to  the  sessions  of 
the  municipal  administration  and  to  those  of  the  town  and 
county  authorities,  to  the  state  capitol,  to  Washington;  he 
must  write  to  the  newspapers,  he  and  others  must  at  times 
bombard  Congress  and  the  state  legislature  and  their  com- 
mittees with  letters  and  telegrams.  In  short  the  system  is  this: 
you  select  the  incapable  and  worthless  for  office  and  then  wear 
your  soul  out  in  efforts  to  keep  them  from  blundering  and 
plundering.  Common  sense  would  suggest  the  selection  in 
the  first  place  of  men  who  could  be  trusted;  and  if  the  method 
of  selection  failed,  to  replace  it  by  a  better  one;  but  this 
cannot  be  done ;  manhood  suffrage  though  rotten  is  sacred,  and 
those  who  have  the  patience  and  courage  continue  their  en- 
deavors to  make  a  marble  temple  of  justice  out  of  a  mud 
electorate. 

This  widespread  attitude  of  suspicion  and  resentment 
toward  public  officials,  originally  private  and  individual,  has 
of  late  years  become  open,  formal  and  public  through  the 
systematic  activities  of  clubs  and  associations  of  supposedly 
disinterested  and  public-spirited  citizens  principally  located 
in  large  cities;  non-partisan  in  character,  and  organized  for 
the  purpose  of  preventing  or  undoing  the  more  flagrant  of  the 
illegal,  immoral  and  improper  operations  of  state  and  local 
governments.  In  plain  words,  just  as  we  have  detectives  to 
watch  thieves,  so  we  have  voluntary  associations  to  watch 
public  officials.  This  sounds  queer,  but  it  is  true.  And  these 
societies  founded  on  contempt  and  distrust  of  officialdom  are 


326      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN    THE   UNITED    STATES 

not  made  up  of  eccentrics;  they  include  some  of  the  most  in- 
telligent men  in  their  respective  communities;  they  are  kept 
busily  employed  a  large  part  of  every  year;  and  are  sustained 
by  the  best  public  opinion  in  their  open  opposition  to  the 
measures  proposed  by  the  manhood  suffrage  officials,  and  in 
their  frequent  active  hostility  to  the  officials  themselves. 
These  associations  may  well  be  called  "watch  dog"  societies, 
their  function  being  to  protect  the  community  from  political 
wolves;  to  bark  loudly  on  any  attempt  of  theirs  to  rob  the 
sheepfold  and  thus  either  to  scare  them  off  or  to  give  such 
warning  as  will  result  in  their  designs  being  frustrated.  Thus 
we  have  in  almost  every  city  and  town  "Taxpayers  Associa- 
tions"; "Citizens  Associations";  "Good  Government  Clubs"; 
"Public  Welfare  Societies";  "Patriotic  Societies";  "Security 
Leagues";  and  the  like;  some  temporary  but  others  permanent 
bodies,  formed  for  general  supervision  and  bringing  to  book 
of  legislators  and  public  officials.  These  watch  dog  societies 
are  always  on  the  alert;  ready  to  receive  complaints  from  any 
source;  to  investigate  them  through  committees,  and  to  attack 
anybody  and  anything  in  what  they  may  choose  to  consider 
the  public  interest.  They  even  employ  private  detectives  and 
lawyers  in  these  enterprises,  just  as  in  pursuit  of  criminal  of- 
fenders; and  they  are  usually  able  to  get  newspapers  to  sup- 
port them  and  to  publish  bitter  attacks  not  merely  upon 
individual  office  holders  but  on  entire  boards,  departments, 
committees,  legislatures  and  congresses,  and  sometimes  the 
courts;  whereby  the  public  are  told  over  and  over  again  that 
these  official  bodies,  composed  as  they  are  of  from  five  to  five 
hundred  men  each,  are  inefficient  and  corrupt.  There  is  no 
pretence  on  the  part  of  some  of  these  societies  of  concealment 
of  their  mean  opinion  of  the  office  holders,  especially  those 
elected  by  the  popular  vote.  One  of  them,  the  New  York 
Citizens  Union,  publishes  an  annual  statement  containing  notes 
of  the  character  and  record  of  each  of  the  local  representa- 
tives in  the  state  legislature,  some  of  them  far  from  compli- 
mentary, and  all  critical  and  superior  in  tone,  like  the  report 


GENERAL    ILL    REPUTE    OF    MANHOOD    SUFFRAGE         327 

of  a  master  of  a  reform  school  on  the  behavior  of  the  pupils. 
In  fact,  though  these  watch  dogs  do  not  directly  attack  the 
institution  of  manhood  suffrage,  their  attitude  towards  its 
creatures  in  state  and  city  government  is  that  of  a  policeman 
toward  a  professional  criminal.  This  practice  of  auxiliary  and 
supervisory  government  by  organized  meddlers  is  well  ex- 
pounded in  a  book  ably  written  by  W.  H.  Allen  of  New  York, 
Director  of  the  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research;  a  man  of 
sufficient  experience  in  political  life  to  have  learned  its 
diseased  condition,  and  to  earnestly  desire  a  palliative  of  its 
evil  symptoms,  but  who  is  without  apparent  hope  of  discover- 
ing or  extirpating  the  cause  of  the  disease.  He  wrote  the  book 
for  the  purpose  of  inducing  citizens,  especially  women,  to 
attend  to  their  civic  duties,  and  he  urges  his  readers  to  join 
one  or  more  of  these  watch  dog  organizations  and  to  actively 
prosecute  their  work.  (Woman's  Part  in  Government.) 

Examples  of  the  operations  of  these  societies  are  easily 
found,  since  they  by  no  means  hide  their  lights.  It  will  be  suffi- 
cient here  to  refer  to  a  recent  one  as  a  sample.  In  January 
1917,  and  again  in  April  1917,  one  of  the  best  known  of  the 
associations,  the  City  Club  of  New  York,  filed  with  the  Gov- 
ernor a  complaint  against  the  District  Attorney,  charging  him 
in  effect  with  gross  misconduct  in  connection  with  certain 
prosecutions  for  homicide.  The  Club  employed  lawyers  to 
prosecute  the  charges  and  there  was  a  furious,  scandalous  and 
prolonged  controversy  in  the  courts,  in  the  public  press  and  be- 
fore the  Governor,  involving  beside  the  District  Attorney  him- 
self some  of  his  assistants  and  others.  Another  powerful 
watchdog  association  is  the  well-known  Chicago  Voters 
League,  established  in  1896.  The  League  claims  that  at  that 
time  of  the  sixty-eight  members  of  the  Chicago  City  Council 
only  ten  were  even  liable  to  a  suspicion  of  honesty,  while  the 
rest  were  organized  into  a  gang  for  plunder  and  blackmail. 
To  correct  this  situation  the  League  was  established  and  still 
operates.  Its  self-perpetuating  Executive  Committee  of  Nine 
publicly  opposes  and  condemns  candidates  for  the  City  Coun- 


328      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

cil  and  directs  the  citizens  how  to  vote.  This,  of  course, 
amounts  to  a  qualified  oligarchy;  in  conformity  with  the  usual 
tendency  of  manhood  suffrage,  to  create  ring  government  in 
one  way  or  another. 

The  whole  attitude  of  these  watch  dog  associations  towards 
the  constituted  civil  authorities  is  most  extraordinary,  in  view 
of  the  respectability  of  most  of  their  membership,  and  strik- 
ingly illustrates  the  deplorable  results  of  manhood  suffrage. 
Their  general  scheme  of  action  is  founded  on  the  open  assump- 
tion of  each  of  them  that  its  members  are  superior  in  wisdom, 
honesty,  patriotism  and  knowledge  of  public  affairs  to  the 
officials  whom  they  denounce,  lecture  and  admonish;  and,  by 
implication  that  these  members  are  superior  also  to  the  con- 
stituents who  elected  these  office  holders.  The  state  legislature 
and  other  public  bodies  are  watched  closely,  and  when  a  meas- 
ure in  which  any  of  these  societies  or  their  controlling  members 
actually  have  or  choose  to  feign  a  great  interest  is  before  any 
legislative  body  or  official  board  for  action  or  determination, 
the  agents  of  the  interested  association  begin  to  interfere;  the 
public  officials  having  the  matter  in  hand  are  not  allowed  to 
deliberate  and  decide  impartially  and  coolly  even  should  they 
desire  to  do  so;  they  are  scolded,  coaxed,  threatened,  bullied 
and  wheedled  into  doing  what  the  association  desires.  Some 
of  these  private  associations  have  funds  subscribed  by  indi- 
viduals, or  arising  from  the  collection  of  dues;  they  are  there- 
fore able  to  employ  lawyers  to  prepare  arguments  and  briefs 
and  political  agents  to  go  about  soliciting  signatures; 
arrangements  are  made  for  a  systematic  campaign  directed 
towards  the  officials  concerned,  who  are  bombarded  with 
letters,  telegrams,  postal  cards  and  petitions;  sometimes 
public  meetings  large  or  small  are  organized,  and  resolutions 
couched  in  peremptory  language  are  passed  and  presented  at 
the  proper  quarters.  Should  the  officials  prove  refractory, 
they  are  apt  to  find  their  motives  impugned,  their  "records'7 
and  personal  history  unearthed,  and  their  characters  publicly 
assailed,  all  from  the  same  source.  All  this,  which  often 


GENERAL    ILL    REPUTE    OF    MANHOOD    SUFFRAGE         329 

amounts  to  coercion,  is  so  frequently  practised  upon  public 
bodies  and  their  members  as  to  have  become  a  recognized 
feature  of  American  public  life. 

A  large  addition  to  the  list  of  political  scandals  contained 
in  this  book  might  be  made  by  recourse  to  the  archives  of  these 
watch  dog  associations  and  to  the  published  reports  of  the 
charges  made  by  them  from  time  to  time  against  the  member- 
ship of  the  state  and  city  legislative  and  administrative 
bodies,  and  to  the  evidence  collected  by  them  in  support  there- 
of, but  space  will  not  permit  even  the  most  condensed  recital 
of  this  material.  Let  it  suffice  to  present  here  the  societies 
themselves,  composed  as  they  are  of  thousands  of  our  citizens 
of  best  standing  and  information,  as  witnesses  to  the  bad  char- 
acter and  reputation  of  manhood  suffrage.  By  their  very  ex- 
istence they  go  far  to  establish  the  significant  fact  that  the 
manhood  suffrage  state  and  local  governments  of  the  United 
States  have  utterly  forfeited  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the 
American  people. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  by  the  work  of  these  watch 
dog  associations  the  evil  of  manhood  suffrage  operations  is 
sensibly  alleviated.  On  the  contrary,  when  carefully  con- 
sidered, that  work,  though  presumably  well  intended,  must  be 
considered  as  a  public  misfortune,  and  as  resulting  in  an  aggra- 
vation rather  than  a  diminution  of  the  evils  of  our  misgovern- 
ment.  In  an  individual  instance  their  efforts  may  produce  good 
effects  limited  to  that  special  transaction,  just  as  might  be 
said  of  any  voluntary  interference  with  constituted  authority; 
but  in  theory  and  in  principle  and  in  the  large  and  final  results, 
the  practice  of  such  interference  is  and  must  be  politically 
noxious,  and  the  case  to  justify  it  even  in  one  instance  must 
be  indeed  extreme.  The  public-spirited  citizens  who  form  an 
important  part  of  their  membership  probably  do  not  realize 
just  what  they  are  doing  when  they  coerce  the  will  of  the 
chosen  representatives  of  the  people.  They  would  be  horrified 
at  the  suggestion  of  using  physical  force  or  physical  threats 
upon  legislators  to  compel  them  to  deviate  from  their  own 


330      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN    THE   UNITED    STATES 

best  judgment;  and  yet  they  do  not  scruple  to  use  what  they 
call  moral  force  to  the  same  purpose,  and  such  moral  force 
as  almost  amounts  to  physical  stress  and  coercion.  The  dif- 
ference in  effect  between  threatening  a  member  of  the  legis- 
lature with  a  cudgel  or  with  printed  defamation  issued  by  a 
powerful  clique  or  league  is  not  always  appreciable.  In  either 
case  the  general  result  is  the  adoption  of  measures  or  modifica- 
tions thereof  reflecting  rather  the  views  of  the  threatening 
meddler  than  those  of  the  public  official  in  question  or  of  the 
majority  who  elected  him.  This  is  a  clear  usurpation  of 
power.  Again,  the  watch  dog  operations  do  not  offer  any  per- 
manent result  in  return  for  this  trampling  down  of  popular 
government;  their  programme  includes  no  method  of  improv- 
ing the  quality  of  our  officials  but  only  one  for  watching  and 
nagging  them.  Third,  it  offers  no  security  whatever  that  the 
volunteer  or  self-appointed  government  censors  shall  them- 
selves be  competent  or  worthy,  or  that  they  shall  be  anything 
more  than  idle  and  presumptuous  fools  or  designing  hypocrites. 
Fourth,  others  less  worthy  and  disinterested,  are  by  the  ex- 
ample of  these  societies  encouraged  to  similar  acts.  So  that  the 
final  result  of  the  watch  dog  plan  is  likely  to  amount  to  no 
more  or  other  than  this  actual  situation:  A  number  of  corrupt, 
weak  and  worthless  legislatures,  town  boards,  city  councils, 
boards  of  supervisors,  etc.,  constantly  nagged,  worried,  insulted 
and  pulled  this  way  and  that,  by  all  kinds  of  people,  including 
watch  dog  associations  and  their  officers,  newspaper  men, 
cranks,  fanatics,  busybodies  generally  and  possibly  scamps  and 
adventurers.  Even  suppose  we  make  the  extravagant  suppo- 
sition that  no  knaves  or  fools  whatever,  but  only  the  better 
type  of  citizens  do  and  will  respond  to  the  appeal  to  organize 
to  boss  the  bosses,  the  system  is  still  impracticable,  and  if 
practicable  would  be  mischievous;  since  it  would  result  in 
oligarchical  tyranny.  For  the  work  proposed  for  these  civic 
organizations  and  for  their  members  would  be  enormous;  it 
would  require  an  acquaintance  with  legislative  and  other  po- 
litical methods  far  beyond  that  possible  to  any  one  who  has 


GENERAL    ILL    REPUTE    OF    MANHOOD    SUFFRAGE         331 

any  other  business;  it  would  necessitate  among  other  things 
the  careful  scrutiny  and  thorough  understanding  of  every  bill 
or  resolution  introduced  into  the  state  or  municipal  legisla- 
ture, and  a  steady  watch  from  day  to  day  of  each  of  these 
bills,  and  of  the  members  of  the  bodies  where  they  may  be 
pending,  and  especially  of  those  of  the  committees  having  them 
under  consideration.  Besides  this  it  involves  the  defense  of 
every  step  taken,  at  the  cost  of  endless  controversy.  As  the 
ordinary  citizen  cannot  possibly  undertake  this  labor  of  super- 
vising oversight  of  government  activities,  it  is  evident  that  if 
done  at  all  by  this  volunteer  method,  it  must  fall  to  a  com- 
paratively few  people  who  have  means  and  leisure,  or  who 
have  special  interests  to  serve;  or  more  likely,  to  hirelings  em- 
ployed by  those  people. 

The  result  of  the  watch  dog  programme  even  if  successfully 
carried  out,  would  therefore  be  the  creation  of  an 
imperium  in  imperio;  an  irresponsible  self-created  govern- 
ing oligarchy  acting  through  the  present  class  of  worthless  and 
corrupt  politicians.  A  more  complicated  and  mischievous  po- 
litical system  nor  one  more  likely  to  produce  tyranny  and 
public  scandals  could  scarcely  be  devised.  But  though  the 
watch  dog  scheme  cannot  be  approved,  its  actual  existence  is 
a  strong  argument  against  manhood  suffrage;  for  though  bad 
reputation  is  not  of  itself  proof  of  misconduct,  yet  it  usually 
accompanies  wrong  doing;  and  when  evidence  of  evil  reputa- 
tion is  here  added  to  the  general  as  well  as  particular  proof 
already  furnished  of  the  mischiefs  resulting  from  manhood 
suffrage,  the  case  against  that  system  can  hardly  fail  to  be  so 
materially  strengthened  as  to  be  practically  unanswerable. 

The  weakness  and  inferiority  of  our  public  officials  afford 
opportunity  for  interference  by  another  set  of  meddlers  in 
public  affairs  who  are  of  inferior  breed  to  the  watch  dogs,  and 
for  the  infusion  of  eccentric  and  fanatical  ideas  and  theories 
into  legislation  and  administration,  such  as  would  not  occur 
in  a  well-founded  governmental  system.  The  class  referred 
to  is  composed  of  political  adventurers,  eccentrics,  cranks,  and 


332      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

fanatics;  people  whose  mental  vision  is  inaccurate;  who  are 
out  of  harmony  with  nature  and  its  operations,  and  whose  un- 
disciplined minds  are  filled  with  impracticable  theories.  Many 
of  them  are  well-to-do  idlers  able  to  give  time  to  the  agitation 
of  any  cause  they  may  happen  to  espouse.  Compared  with 
the  watch  dogs  they  are  as  the  yellow  dogs  of  politics.  They 
function  in  every  state  as  promoters  of  crank  legislation,  the 
history  whereof  in  the  United  States  would  no  doubt  make, 
if  compiled,  a  very  interesting  volume,  containing  many  sur- 
prises to  the  general  reader.  While  sane  and  prudent  men  are 
content  to  confine  their  attention  to  their  private  affairs,  and 
while  modest  men,  be  they  ever  so  well  informed,  are  apt  to 
doubt  their  own  capacity  in  affairs  of  state,  a  certain  class 
of  cranks  are  always  eager  to  meddle  with  politics;  full  of 
conceit  they  are  not  troubled  with  doubts  as  to  the  correctness 
of  their  own  opinions.  When  one  such  takes  up  a  fad,  re- 
ligious, moral,  political  or  social,  he  becomes  more  and  more 
engrossed  in  it;  nothing  else  matters  to  him  half  so  much; 
family  and  business  are  neglected;  he  writes  for  the  news- 
papers; he  attends  and  organizes  public  meetings;  he  serves 
on  committees;  he  makes  speeches;  he  circulates  literature; 
he  contributes  to  the  cause  within  his  means,  which  sometimes 
are  large,  and  collects  for  it  from  others.  When  a  "move- 
ment" as  it  is  called  is  once  fairly  started  it  is  sure  to  be 
joined  by  many  with  ulterior  motives,  impelled  by  vanity,  by 
mere  love  of  notoriety,  by  fondness  for  excitement;  by  those 
who  seek  the  pleasure  of  serving  on  committees,  of  speaking 
in  public,  or  of  seeing  their  names  in  print;  others  come  to 
make  new  acquaintances;  to  escape  ennui;  to  become  politi- 
cally important.  Under  a  strong  and  intelligent  government 
these  collections  of  faddists,  adventurers,  humbugs  and  fools 
would  do  little  more  harm  than  so  many  debating  societies; 
but  when,  as  now,  those  in  power  are  of  mediocre  ability,  weak 
calibre  or  politically  timid,  such  societies  are  potent  for  mis- 
chief. The  ordinary  politician  holding  an  office  obtained  per- 
haps by  a  majority  of  a  few  votes,  or  otherwise  precarious  in 


GENERAL    ILL   REPUTE    OF    MANHOOD    SUFFRAGE         333 

its  tenure  is  easily  frightened  by  a  show  of  organization. 
Where  the  proposed  new  measure  is  one  opposed  to  the  pe- 
cuniary or  political  interests  of  the  bosses  the  cranks  get  but 
slight  attention;  but  where  there  are  only  principles  involved 
their  chances  for  success  are  often  very  good  indeed.  The 
fact  that  they  are  armed  with  theories  however  foolish,  makes 
them  appear  mysterious  and  redoubtable  antagonists  to  small 
politicians,  who  cannot  understand  principles  or  the  motives  of 
people  professing  principles.  The  official  finds  himself  con- 
fronted and  baited  by  an  inexorable  pack  of  those  yellow  dogs, 
small  in  number,  but  terrible  in  noise  and  clamor,  who  give 
him  no  rest;  while  on  the  other  hand  the  sane  and  sensible 
folk  of  his  constituency  are  not  only  silent  and  apparently 
indifferent  but  scarcely  seem  aware  (as  indeed  most  of  them 
are  not)  of  his  name  or  existence.  Getting  no  orders  from  his 
boss,  who  takes  no  interest  in  the  matter  one  way  or  another, 
what  wonder  if  the  weary  legislator  or  administrator,  either 
becomes  half  convinced  by  the  din  of  arguments  which  he  is 
too  weak  or  ignorant  to  answer,  or  frightened  by  the  criticism 
he  is  receiving,  yields  at  last  with  a  sigh  of  relief.  And  so 
the  crank  project  often  goes  through  without  public  notice 
except  the  applause  of  the  agitators,  who  print  a  triumphant 
account  in  the  newspapers  of  the  adoption  of  another  "reform 
measure"  and  get  one  of  their  members  to  write  it  up  in  some 
magazine  with  a  laudatory  reference  to  himself  and  his  asso- 
ciates. The  effect  of  "crank"  or  yellow  dog  influence  upon 
our  weak  state  governments  is  another  of  the  evil  results  of 
manhood  suffrage. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE  ELECTORATE  FUNCTIONS  NOT  BY  ITS  INDIVIDUALS  BUT 
BY  GROUPS  WHEREBY  THE  ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  THE 
SHIFTLESS  AND  IGNORANT  GROUP  NECESSARILY  TENDS 
TO  CREATE  A  VICIOUS  POWER  IN  POLITICS. 

MOST  of  us  have  from  time  to  time  in  the  course  of  our 
lives,  heard  a  good  deal  of  indignation  expressed  by  worthy 
citizens  over  the  politicians'  organization  and  use  of  the  con- 
trollable vote.  But  if  we  give  a  little  thought  to  the  manner 
in  which  the  electoral  representative  system  actually  and  nec- 
essarily operates,  we  will  see  that  the  organization  of  the  non- 
propertied  voters  was  a  perfectly  natural,  and  one  might  say 
an  inevitable  result  of  their  enfranchisement.  It  was  a  step 
to  which  they  were  and  are  practically  invited  by  the  situation 
itself,  and  for  taking  which  neither  they  nor  their  leaders  are 
logically  blamable.  The  only  people  to  be  criticised  are  those 
who  opened  the  door  to  this  class  of  voters.  The  unpropertied 
vote  became  an  organized  group,  because  it  could  not  other- 
wise function  in  our  political  system,  which  operates  entirely 
though  groups  or  classes  and  ignores  the  individual.  A  few 
of  the  astute  public  men  of  a  century  ago  understood  this;  the 
mass  did  not;  they  imagined  that  in  extending  the  suffrage  to 
the  unpropertied,  the  incapables,  they  were  conferring  a  harm- 
less compliment  upon  scattered  individuals  whose  votes  would 
be  distributed  among  those  of  the  other  classes,  and  absorbed 
in  the  general  mass  without  perceptible  effect.  Had  this  been 
the  only  result,  the  gift  of  the  vote  would  have  been  a  barren 
one,  costing  the  givers  nothing  and  of  no  benefit  to  the  re- 
cipients. But  far  from  being  empty,  it  was  costly,  it  was  real, 
and  the  newly  enfranchised  immediately  made  use  of  it,  as  we 

334 


GENESIS    OF    THE    PREDATORY    VOTE  335 

have  seen,  forming  themselves  into  effective  groups  for  the 
accomplishment  of  their  own  small  and  sordid  desires.  And 
so  the  generation  of  Americans  who  saw  manhood  suffrage 
established,  were  astonished  to  find  shortly  after,  that  the 
voting  power  was  almost  suddenly  taken  out  of  their  hands  by 
a  new  force  in  politics.  They  have  never  been  able  to  get  it 
back,  and  most  people  do  not  yet  understand  the  theory  of 
what  has  occurred.  They  do  not  comprehend,  their  ancestors 
of  the  last  century  did  not  comprehend  that  the  enfranchise- 
ment of  the  unpropertied  voters  meant  that  they  were  invited 
not  merely  as  individuals,  but  as  a  class,  and  through  their  own 
local  groups  or  subdivisions  to  take  such  part  in  forming  the 
government  as  they  were  able.  It  was  not  merely  that  they 
were  enfranchised  as  a  body,  but  that  our  political  system  is 
such  that  only  by  groups,  classes  and  factions  can  any  share 
in  the  government  be  obtained.  This  fact  is  so  important, 
and  though  patent  to  every  one  its  significance  has  been  so 
generally  overlooked,  that  it  deserves  the  entire  chapter  al- 
lotted to  it  in  this  volume. 

In  our  scheme  of  government  the  individual  voter  as  such 
counts  for  absolutely  nothing.  Our  elective  system  is  not, 
as  so  many  believe,  at  all  intended  or  contrived  as  a  medium 
of  individual  political  expression,  but  as  a  means  for  measuring 
the  force  of  groups,  factions  and  parties  and  of  creating  ma- 
jorities. The  gift  of  the  ballot  is  intended  for  collective  and 
not  for  individual  employment  and  advantage.  It  does  not 
imply  as  is  commonly  supposed  the  right  of  a  man  "to  govern 
himself"  nor  to  have  his  individual  opinions  and  wishes  con- 
sidered and  acted  upon.  It  necessarily  implies  joint  and  not 
individual  action;  the  individual  voter  is  only  remotely  a 
factor  in  the  process  of  government  making;  the  direct  fac- 
tors whereof  are  groups,  factions  and  parties.  The  separate 
voter's  influence  is  no  more  than  that  of  a  component  atom  in 
a  large  moving  body,  and  just  as  the  snowflake  cannot  move 
the  steam  engine  till  it  ceases  to  be  a  snowflake  and  becomes 
part  of  a  volume  of  steam,  so  the  individual  cannot  become 


336      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

any  part  of  the  moving  power  in  politics  till  he  merges  his  in- 
dividuality into  some  of  the  political  groups  or  factions  of  the 
community. 

Although  these  plain  facts  are  never  mentioned  by  the  poli- 
ticians, the  newspapers  or  the  twaddlers  who  write  text-books 
on  American  democracy,  yet  every  sensible  man  realizes  that 
when  he  votes  to  any  effect  he  is  really  obeying  orders.  If 
he  should  write  his  true  and  individual  choice  for  governor  or 
alderman,  it  would  probably  be  some  worthy  man  of  his  ac- 
quaintance whose  name  does  not  appear  on  any  official  ballot 
or  designation  whatever,  and  his  vote  thus  cast  would  be  a 
nullity;  scorned  and  thrown  aside  by  the  inspectors;  not 
counted;  returned  as  "scattering."  Knowing  that  a  vote  for 
his  individual  choice  will  be  disregarded,  he  feels  practically 
compelled  to  accept  the  candidate  of  some  group,  faction  or 
party;  one  with  whom  he  has  no  personal  acquaintance  what- 
ever; and  who  if  elected  will  represent  not  the  voter  at  all,  nor 
his  views,  but  the  combination  which  put  him  forward,  and 
which  has  an  existence,  a  history,  leaders  and  motives  of  its 
own.  Therefore,  in  the  act  of  voting,  your  would-be  indepen- 
dent citizen,  willy  nilly,  surrenders  his  individuality  just  as 
completely,  and  is  practically  just  as  subservient  to  the  group 
or  party  managers  as  any  political  heeler  of  the  local  boss. 
Nor  does  the  citizen  by  the  contribution  of  his  vote  become 
entitled  to  the  slightest  share  of  control  over  the  group  which 
he  has  thus  strengthened;  that  group  may  have  some  political 
weight,  while  he  has  none  that  is  appreciable.  If  he  wants  to 
talk  politics  he  may  of  course  do  so  if  he  can  get  a  listener;  it 
will  usually  be  as  effective  a  performance  as  the  child  blowing 
on  the  mainsail  of  a  ship  at  sea. 

The  ordinary  plain  citizen  in  a  democratic  community  of 
ten  thousand  votes  may  suppose  that  he  has  the  privilege  of 
exercising  one  ten  thousandth  part  of  the  governing  power  of 
that  community.  He  flatters  himself.  If  he  belongs  either  to 
no  group  or  to  the  minority  group  or  faction,  he  has  and  ex- 
ercises absolutely  no  part  whatever  in,  or  influence  upon,  the 


GENESIS    OF    THE    PREDATORY    VOTE  337 

community's  policy  or  government.  If  he  affiliates  with  the 
majority  party,  his  part  in  government  is  very  far  from  being 
represented  by  his  fractional  share  of  its  numbers.  His  fac- 
tion or  party  has  a  life  and  will  of  its  own,  and  unless  he  has 
a  place  in  its  directing  mind,  he  has  no  influence  upon  its  move- 
ments or  operations.  His  importance  is  comparable  with  that 
of  a  member  of  a  volunteer  military  body  or  procession  march- 
ing in  obedience  to  orders  from  headquarters.  The  individual 
member  may  remain  on  the  sidewalk  or  go  home,  in  either  of 
which  cases  he  will  have  no  part  in  the  function;  but  even 
should  he  join  in  the  procession  he  will  be  entirely  without  say 
or  influence  concerning  its  movements.  His  only  effect  will 
be  as  one  of  the  constituent  atoms  of  a  body  which  has  an 
existence,  mind  and  direction  of  its  own  apart  from  and  su- 
perior to  and  controlling  that  of  each  of  its  members. 

Notwithstanding  this  obvious  situation,  impossible  to  deny, 
most  people  fail  to  realize  it,  and  many  cannot  see  or  will  not 
admit  even  to  themselves  the  futility  of  individual  voting. 
The  illusion  of  the  value  of  an  independent  vote,  the  product 
of  self-conceit  and  political  superstition  exists  in  the  minds 
of  numbers  of  intelligent  men,  and  daily  manifests  itself  in 
the  cant  and  rubbish  of  every-day  speech.  A  very  large  pro- 
portion of  American  men  like  to  believe  or  pretend  that  they 
believe,  that  an  effective  vote  can  really  be  cast  by  the  indi- 
vidual citizen  expressive  of  his  own  individual  will  and  spon- 
taneous desire,  and  that  thereby  such  will  and  desire  will  be 
manifested  and  reflected  in  the  policy  and  acts  of  the  govern- 
ment. The  privilege  of  casting  this  impossible  vote  is  by  such  a 
man  imagined  as  one  of  the  inestimable  privileges  of  American 
citizenship.  He  is,  he  proudly  thinks,  an  independent  voter, 
free  from  party  trammels;  and  he  fondly  supposes  that  by 
so  much  as  he  holds  himself  aloof  from  party  organization  is 
his  voted  opinion  the  more  valuable  and  effective.  We  fre- 
quently hear  a  man  threaten  to  vote  against  this  and  that 
candidate;  sometimes,  filled  with  self-importance,  he  notifies 
his  newspaper  of  his  dire  intention;  others  who  have  not  even 


338      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

membership  in  any  party  gravely  tell  you  that  you  should 
always  vote  for  somebody,  that  it  is  your  duty  to  do  so,  and 
having  themselves  voted  for  men  of  whose  policies  they  have 
not  the  slightest  knowledge  or  control,  try  to  fancy  that  they 
have  employed  their  time  and  shoe  leather  to  great  advantage. 
The  fact  is  that  these  self-styled  independent  voters  are  in 
all  this  the  happy  victims  of  pleasant  delusions.  Each  of  them 
is  either  a  party  voter  or  a  mere  trifler.  When  he  pretends 
to  revolt  from  political  control,  he  usually  does  nothing  of  the 
kind;  he  simply  changes  his  vote  from  the  candidate  of  one  set 
of  politicians  to  the  candidate  of  the  other  set.  In  other  words, 
instead  of  being  independent,  he  joins,  for  the  time  at  least, 
the  other  party  or  group  and  finds  himself  compelled  to  sur- 
render his  individual  preferences  and  to  vote  the  name  they 
give  him.  If  he  really  selects  his  own  independent  candidate 
and  votes  for  him,  his  vote  is  practically  lost;  his  act  is  futile; 
it  is  a  vote  "in  the  air";  he  might  as  well  vote  for  a  dead  man. 
"So  that  the  elective  franchise  merely  gives  the  voter  the  privi- 
lege of  joining  with  others  in  the  formation  of  a  political  group 
or  body  capable  of  aspiring  to  influence  or  power.  But  in 
order  to  do  this,  the  individual  at  the  very  outset  is  compelled 
to  surrender  his  individual  wishes,  preferences  and  ambitions 
to  be  transmuted  into  the  collective  wish,  preference  and  power 
of  his  group.  He  has  usually  no  more  control  over  the  move- 
ments of  the  group  or  party  which  contains  him  than  a  drop 
of  blood  in  the  veins  of  a  bull  has  over  the  movements  of  the 
animal. 

When  therefore  about  ninety  years  ago  the  unpropertied 
citizens  were  admitted  into  the  political  arena  it  was  perfectly 
natural  that  they  should  speedily  form  themselves  into  new 
and  distinctive  groups.  The  electorate  has  always  grouped 
and  divided  itself  according  to  its  interests  and  passions;  wit- 
ness the  old  division  between  Eastern  and  Western  Virginia 
already  referred  to;  the  tariff  and  slavery  divisions,  etc.  The 
unpropertied  non-voters  had  already  been  distinguishable  from 
the  propertied  voters  by  their  different  traits,  characteristics 


GENESIS    OF    THE    PREDATORY    VOTE  339 

and  desires.  When  they  obtained  the  vote  the  difference  be- 
tween the  two  classes  widened;  the  attitude  toward  the  offices 
and  the  spoils  of  office  being  that  of  unscrupulous  and  hungry 
greed  on  one  side,  and  on  the  other  that  comparative  disinter- 
estedness which  comes  from  physical  comfort  and  well  being. 
The  core  of  the  membership  of  the  new  group  of  voters  was 
in  penury;  it  needed  the  spoils  of  office,  to  which  the  older 
voters  were  comparatively  indifferent.  Stimulated  by  this 
need  the  non-propertied  groups  at  once  sought  and  obtained 
a  greater  cohesive  power  than  any  possible  rivals;  enabling 
them  to  overcome  and  survive  them  all.  They  became  united 
and  predatory  political  bands;  easily  manageable  by  their 
leaders;  willing  to  waive  aside  as  comparatively  impertinent, 
the  various  abstract  questions  on  which  the  propertied  voters 
were  hopelessly  divided.  In  short,  they  became  a  unified 
power,  and  often  the  only  unified  power  in  practical  politics. 

The  strength  and  discipline  of  the  controllable  groups  of 
voters,  have  always  given  them  an  immense  advantage  in  the 
final  and  supreme  governmental  process,  that  of  the  formation, 
management  and  maintenance  of  governing  majorities.  The 
creation  of  such  a  majority,  or  the  ability  to  become  a  part 
thereof  is  the  final  test  of  political  capacity.  Occasionally 
majorities  create  themselves;  as  in  great  popular  agitations 
when  the  people  "rise  in  their  might"  and  overwhelm  the  con- 
trolled voter.  But  such  irregular  movements  last  at  most 
but  a  few  weeks  or  months,  whereupon  the  before  established 
oligarchy  resumes  control  and  continues  its  steady  business 
of  majority  formation  and  maintenance.  It  is  a  job  requiring 
constant  and  compelling  discipline;  and  one  in  which  the 
controllable  and  always  reliable  vote  is  the  chief  element  of  a 
uniformly  successful  management. 

It  comes  then  to  this,  that  in  a  democracy  no  man  should  be 
admitted  to  vote,  unless  his  class  or  group  will  be  of  service  in 
government.  In  considering  proposed  legislation  for  extension 
of  the  franchise,  the  first  question  should  always  be,  what  will 
be  the  character  of  the  group  or  faction  with  which  the  new 


340      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

voters  will  identify  themselves?  And  if  the  result  is  going  to 
be  the  introduction  of  a  new  faction  or  party  into  our  political 
system,  or  the  dominance  of  one  at  present  in  the  minority, 
the  effect  thereof  should  be  seriously  considered  before  the 
change  is  authorized.  This  being  a  government  not  of  indi- 
viduals but  of  groups,  the  right  of  any  individual  to  vote  can 
be  conceded  to  him  only  as  one  belonging  to  a  class  or  group 
entitled  and  competent  to  take  part  in  the  government.  And 
if  his  group  is  of  the  ignorant,  the  worthless,  the  non-contribu- 
tors to  the  commonwealth,  where  is  its  claim  to  govern?  Those 
therefore  who  believe  in  unlimited  suffrage,  that  is  in  the  right 
of  the  ignorant  and  worthless  to  vote,  must  believe  either  that 
such  vote  will  be  unorganized,  in  which  case  it  is  an  empty 
gift  of  a  valueless  privilege,  or  they  must  believe  in  the  natural 
right  of  organized  worthlessness  to  do  what  it  has  actually 
done  and  is  still  doing,  namely  to  rule  the  country,  or  to  take 
effective  part  in  such  rule,  and  incidentally  to  degrade  the 
standards  of  government  to  a  point  as  near  the  low  level  of 
its  own  intelligence  and  conscience  as  possible. 

Prior  to  manhood  suffrage  the  political  groups  were  all 
transient,  shifting  and  undisciplined  bodies  representing  de- 
batable theories  and  principles;  this  continued  from  Wash- 
ington's time  to  Jackson's.  Manhood  suffrage  furnished  the 
material  everywhere  for  new  groups  founded  on  need  and 
appetite  and  organized  by  professional  politicians;  these  have 
become  drilled  and  disciplined,  have  learned  to  live  off  the 
country  and  to  obey  leaders.  They  have  won  the  usual  ad- 
herence of  success;  drawing  from  every  direction  the  indif- 
ferent, the  lukewarm,  the  careless,  the  unprincipled,  the  weak, 
the  foolish,  the  men  of  small  ambitions,  the  business  failures, 
and  the  odds  and  ends,  in  total  the  material  for  a  great  preda- 
tory political  army.  The  leaders  of  that  army  constitute  the 
power  which  governs  the  United  States  to-day. 


CHAPTER    XXIII 

ANSWER  TO  THE  PLEA  THAT  THE  BALLOT  SHOULD  BE 
GRANTED  TO  THE  UNPROPERTIED  CLASSES  AS  A  PRO- 
TECTIVE WEAPON 

THE  argument  is  frequently  used  in  certain  quarters  that 
the  vote  in  the  hands  of  the  unpropertied  classes  is  a  weapon 
of  defense  needed  to  protect  their  weakness  against  govern- 
mental oppression  or  to  enable  them  to  procure  needful  affir- 
mative legislation.  This  argument  though  without  real  force  is 
sufficiently  plausible  to  merit  attention. 

The  first  and  readiest  answer  is  that  the  experiment  has 
been  tried  and  grievously  failed.  They  have  had  the  ballot 
ninety  years  and  have  used  it  for  naught  but  mischief  to 
themselves  and  others.  The  second  answer  is  that  govern- 
mental oppression  of  the  poor  in  this  country  is  an  impossi- 
bility. It  would  only  be  possible  through  class  legislation  and 
there  is  no  conceivable  class  legislation  which  would  favor  the 
prosperous  people  at  the  expense  of  their  poorer  fellow  citi- 
zens. There  has  never  been  class  legislation  in  this  country, 
and  it  is  impossible  to  devise,  much  more  to  enact  it  in  a  way 
to  be  effective,  because  we  have  no  fixed  classes.  We  may 
use  the  word  "class"  for  convenience,  but  there  is  no  permanent 
class  of  poor  people  any  more  than  there  is  a  fixed  class  of 
lazy  or  sickly  or  dissolute  people,  or  of  professional  men  or 
farmers  or  blacksmiths.  There  is  at  all  times  a  body  of  skilled 
and  one  of  unskilled  laborers,  but  they  are  not  fixed  classes; 
nor  are  their  members  generally  paupers  or  propertyless ;  most 
of  them  either  have  or  expect  to  accumulate  money  or  property 
either  individually  or  in  their  families,  and  desire  to  have  it 
secured  to  them  by  equal  and  just  laws.  The  poor  come  from 

341 


342       POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN    THE   UNITED   STATES 

all  ranks,  occupations  and  families  and  so  do  the  rich.  The 
son  of  a  rich  farmer  is  a  struggling  doctor  and  the  daughter 
of  a  laborer  becomes  the  wife  of  a  banker.  In  fact,  the  prin- 
cipal cause  of  the  envy  of  the  rich  by  the  less  rich  is  not  usu- 
ally that  they  belong  to  a  fixed  class,  but  the  contrary,  because 
they  have  not  remained  where  they  were  but  have  managed 
by  hook  or  crook  to  get  ahead  of  their  former  associates. 
Class  legislation  scarcely  exists  today  in  any  civilized  coun- 
try; it  disappeared  with  the  permanent  classes  of  former  days 
and  is  now  merely  a  tradition  of  a  gone-by  period  when  no 
doubt  the  system  of  fixed  classes  served  a  necessary  purpose. 
But  even  if  we  choose  to  consider  the  different  occupations  of 
men,  or  their  pecuniary  circumstances  from  time  to  time  as 
class  divisions,  there  is  no  possibility  of  unequal  legislation 
affecting  them,  because  it  is  so  difficult  as  to  be  practically 
impossible  to  separate  their  interests  so  as  to  make  such  legis- 
lation profitable  to  any  special  interest.  We  may  of  course, 
to  please  our  fancy,  imagine  attempts  at  class  legislation  even 
here  and  now.  We  may  imagine  enactments  aimed  at  red- 
headed men  or  sculptors.  And  so  we  may  dream  of  laws 
against  the  poor,  enacted  by  a  people  whose  charity  and  gen- 
erosity to  the  poor  and  unfortunate  is  proverbial;  but  they 
will  never  be  seriously  considered  in  this  country  until  we 
have  become  politically  insane,  in  which  case  all  democracy 
will  be  practically  non-existent  among  us.  As  things  actually 
are  our  intelligent  people  are  fully  aware  that  business  pros- 
perity to  be  real  must  be  universal;  that  the  well-being  of  the 
laboring  people  is  absolutely  essential  to  the  well-being  of  the 
rest  of  the  community,  and  they  will  never  even  consider  a 
suggestion  of  legislation  oppressive  towards  the  wage  earners. 
There  are  three  principal  bodies  of  propertied  men;  farmers, 
professional  men  and  traders ;  who  together  constitute  the  bulk 
of  the  propertied  electorate.  No  one  can  imagine  the  farmers 
as  consenting  to  any  persecution  of  the  poor;  and  the  suc- 
cessful traders  and  professional  men  are  interested  in  the  pros- 
perity of  their  poorer  neighbors;  they  are  fed  by  a  stream  of 


THE   BALLOT   NOT   A   CLASS   WEAPON  343 

wealth  which  comes  from  a  surplus  created  and  expended  by 
the  working  classes.  The  business  interests  of  all  the  people 
are  so  bound  together  that  the  prosperity  of  one  is  in  reality 
the  prosperity  of  all;  the  wealth  of  one  furnishes  a  market  for 
the  industries  of  the  other;  the  need  of  one  man  gives  em- 
ployment to  his  neighbor;  and  all  this  is  true  though  the  la- 
borer and  the  employer  and  the  trader  and  the  customer  are 
separated  by  mountains,  plains,  seas  or  national  boundaries. 
All  business  workers,  in  whatever  capacity,  form  part  of  a 
great  joint  enterprise,  and  the  body  of  the  poorer  people  have 
therefore  no  business  interests  which  are  antagonistic  to  those 
of  the  propertied  class.  Rather  are  they  interested  in  the 
successes  of  the  wealthy,  of  the  capitalists,  and  especially  of 
those  of  them  who  are  engaged  in  mercantile  pursuits,  or  man- 
ufacturing industries,  because  it  is  on  such  prosperity  that 
their  employment  depends.  And  the  situation  in  political 
matters  is  similar  to  that  in  business  matters.  What  all  need 
in  government  is  ability  and  honesty;  and  the  poor  man  might 
as  well  object  to  being  medically  treated  by  one  of  a  wealthy 
family,  as  to  object  to  a  competent  man  sitting  in  the  legisla- 
ture or  administering  a  public  office  because  he  is  rich.  From 
Washington  down  to  Roosevelt  the  men  of  old  and  wealthy 
families  have  in  politics  always  given  the  poor  the  benefit  of 
disinterested  and  enlightened  service. 

The  upper  classes  are  the  least  likely  of  all  to  favor  op- 
pressive legislation  because  being  the  best  trained  and  most 
accustomed  to  deal  with  large  matters,  they  have  been  and  are 
the  quickest  to  learn  true  principles,  and  to  adopt  the  common 
sense  doctrine  that  the  prosperity  of  the  country  is  their  pros- 
perity, and  that  class  legislation  is  bad  for  everybody,  and 
especially  bad  for  property  owners.  The  suffrage  was  origi- 
nally conferred  upon  the  unpropertied  by  the  vote  of  the  prop- 
ertied class;  and  it  is  almost  nonsensical  to  suppose  that 
nothing  but  the  ballot  saves  the  former  from  political  oppres- 
sion at  the  hands  of  the  very  people  who  voluntarily  conferred 
the  gift  of  the  ballot  upon  them.  In  fact,  the  prosperous 


344      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

classes  of  our  race  have  not  heretofore  been  anywhere  inclined 
to  exercise  political  tyranny  upon  the  less  prosperous.  On  the 
contrary  liberalism  has  always  been  promoted  by  the  upper 
classes.  Had  they  legislated  with  effect  so  as  to  crush  those  be- 
neath them  when  they  had  the  uncontrolled  power  to  do  so,  the 
lower  classes  would  never  have  been  permitted  to  ascend.  De 
Tocqueville  says  that  "almost  all  the  democratic  movements 
which  have  agitated  the  world  have  been  directed  by  nobles." 
Historically,  the  case  can  best  be  judged  by  reference  to  Eng- 
land as  a  nation  with  political  institutions  much  resembling 
ours,  but  much  older  and  including  an  aristocratic  order. 
There,  liberal  political  measures  have  always  been  actively 
advocated  by  members  of  the  upper  classes;  and  though  these 
originally  held  all  political  power,  it  was  not  through  usurpa- 
tion, but  naturally,  and  out  of  the  necessity  of  the  case;  the 
lower  classes  being  totally  illiterate  and  the  middle  classes 
politically  indifferent.  And  so,  according  as  the  lower  and 
middle  classes  acquired  knowledge  and  wealth,  they  were  ad- 
mitted step  by  step  to  a  share  in  the  government.  Here  we 
must  distinguish  between  individual  political  ambition  and 
class  legislation.  The  members  of  the  gentry  and  of  the  great 
families  sought  to  keep  their  individual  places  and  power,  for 
the  same  reason  that  any  office  holder  of  the  present  time  holds 
on  to  his  place  with  all  the  assistance  he  can  muster.  But 
they  did  not  work  together  as  a  class  against  the  others  as 
a  class.  Had  they  done  so  the  inferior  orders  could  never  have 
risen.  In  France  in  1789  the  Revolution  was  fathered  by  the 
upper  classes.  Lafayette  and  Rochambeau,  who  came  to 
America  to  help  Washington,  were  noblemen,  and  yet  strong 
advocates  of  free  political  institutions.  The  nobility  of  France 
in  the  National  Assembly  aided  the  progress  of  the  Revolution 
as  long  as  it  was  sane.  They  voted  almost  to  a  man  for  the 
abolition  of  the  feudal  system  and  of  hereditary  privileges. 
It  was  only  when  the  Terrorists  began  to  tyrannize  by  means 
of  riot  and  slaughter,  that  the  French  nobility  turned  against 
the  Revolution,  which  had  practically  become  an  obscene  and 


THE   BALLOT    NOT   A   CLASS    WEAPON  345 

bloody  march  towards  atheistic  anarchy.  This  liberal  attitude 
is  not  surprising,  because  the  effect  of  education  and  refinement 
is  to  make  men  not  only  more  benevolent  and  sympathetic  but 
also  more  just.  Every  man  of  understanding  and  experience 
knows,  that  he  is  more  likely  to  get  both  justice  and  com- 
passion from  a  man  of  high  rank  and  breeding,  well  educated 
and  in  easy  circumstances,  than  from  one  of  the  lower  classes. 
That  is  why  the  aristocratic  British  judges  stand  so  high  in 
the  world's  opinion,  and  why  some  of  the  wiser  among  us 
endeavor,  often  with  poor  success,  to  see  to  it  that  the  judges 
of  our  highest  courts  are  well  bred,  well  educated  and  paid 
high  salaries. 

Returning  to  the  subject  of  class  legislation,  there  has  never 
been  in  the  United  States  any  attempt  in  that  direction. 
Whether  considered  historically  therefore,  or  in  the  light  of 
present  day  experiences,  the  fear  of  class  legislation  in  this 
country  in  favor  of  the  middle  class  against  the  poor,  is  so 
unfounded  as  to  be  almost  absurd. 

The  suggestion  that  the  unpropertied  should  be  given  the 
suffrage,  so  that  they  may  obtain  affirmative  remedial  legis- 
lation in  their  behalf,  remains  to  be  answered.  But  it  involves 
a  really  unthinkable  proposition,  namely,  the  making  people 
prosperous  who  are  naturally  unfitted  for  prosperity.  As  well 
think  of  creating  musicians  or  mathematicians  by  legislative 
enactment.  By  no  legislation  can  the  thriftless  be  made  thrifty. 
By  caring  for  them  in  almshouses,  hospitals,  and  by  donative 
relief,  the  State  has  gone  to  the  limit  of  taxing  the  efficient  to 
preserve  the  inefficient. 

The  doctrine  that  the  rule  of  the  propertied  voters  would  be 
oppressive  to  the  poor  is  not  only  false,  but  falsely  assumes  the 
existence  of  a  universal  tendency  fatal  to  democracy  and  even 
to  civilization.  For,  the  avowed  purpose  of  our  democracy 
is  to  promote  the  material  prosperity  of  the  masses ;  and  there- 
fore, to  encourage  the  production  of  property  and  the  increase 
of  wealth ;  but  if  property  and  wealth  have  the  effect  of  making 
the  common  people  tyrants;  if  the  thrifty  educated  and  indus- 


346      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

trious  masses  cannot  be  trusted  to  carry  on  government  with- 
out the  practise  of  tyranny  upon  the  less  prosperous,  then  de- 
mocracy is  a  complete  failure,  and  the  advance  of  civilization 
is  hopeless.  Fortunately  there  is  no  ground  for  any  such  con- 
clusion. All  legislation  which  favors  property  favors  all  classes, 
ranks  and  occupations.  The  attitude  of  democracy  towards 
property  should  be  similar  to  its  attitude  towards  education, 
that  of  complete  friendliness,  founded  on  the  knowledge  that 
it  is  a  good  thing,  and  that  we  all  want  it  created  as  rapidly  and 
distributed  as  widely  as  possible.  The  better  it  is  protected 
the  more  there  will  be  of  it  for  everyone.  The  interest  of  the 
nation's  workers  of  all  classes  is  not  to  oppose  property,  but 
to  own  and  control  as  much  of  it  as  they  can  get. 


CHAPTER   XXIV 

ANSWER  TO  THE  PLEA  THAT  THE  PRIVILEGE  OF  SUFFRAGE  BE 
GRANTED  TO  ALL  AS  A  MEANS  OF  POLITICAL  EDUCATION; 
AND  HEREIN  OF  SILK  PURSES  MADE  FROM  SOWS'  EARS  AND 
OF  AMATEUR  HARPING 

STRANGE  as  it  may  seem  to  any  one  who  has  given  any  seri- 
ous thought  to  the  subject,  the  proposition  has  been,  if  not 
urged,  at  least  put  forward,  by  respectable  writers,  that  the  suf- 
frage should  be  granted  to  all  citizens  without  distinction, 
solely  for  the  educational  benefit  they  will  receive  from  it.  The 
voting  booths  are  evidently  viewed  by  these  easy-going  minds 
not  as  they  really  are,  as  judgment  seats,  as  the  beginnings  and 
sources  of  actual  government,  but  as  schools  for  all  comers  in 
politics  and  patriotism;  as  practise  grounds;  experimental  sta- 
tions; where  every  clumsy  dunce  may  try  his  hand,  hit  or  miss. 
The  author  has  not  been  able  to  find  any  well-worked-out  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  this  fantastic  proposition,  but  it  has  been  seri- 
ously presented  by  men  who  evidently  thought  they  were 
uttering  sense.  The  strongest  plea  in  its  favor  heretofore  pub- 
lished appears  to  be  the  following  from  Maccunn,  which  is 
quoted  in  full  because  the  notion  is  such  a  queer  one  that  it 
cannot  safely  be  paraphrased. 

"Doubters  about  democratic  franchise  are  apt  to  insist  that  no 
man  should  have  a  vote  till  he  is  fit  to  use  it.  The  necessary  re- 
joinder, however,  is  that  men  can  only  become  fit  to  have  votes 
by  first  using  them.  There  is  no  other  way.  Preparation  there  may 
be,  in  the  home,  in  school,  in  industrial  organization,  in  the  conduct 
of  business.  But  these  will  not  suffice.  Not  so  easily  is  the  citizen 
made.  It  is  as  Aristotle  has  it;  the  harper  is  not  made  otherwise 
than  by  harping,  nor  the  just  man  otherwise  than  by  the  doing  of 

347 


348      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

just  deeds.  How  can  it  be  otherwise  here,  how  can  the  capable 
voter  be  made  except  by  voting  capably?  Citizenship  is,  after  all, 
but  a  larger  art;  and  to  teach  men  to  do  their  duties  to  the  State, 
the  only  finally  effective  plan  is  to  give  them  duties  to  the  State 
to  do.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  many  a  believer  in  Democracy  is 
ready  with  an  equanimity  wrongly  construed  by  his  critics  as  levity 
or  simplicity,  to  sit  unmoved  under  the  warning  that  a  raw  Democ- 
racy may  mismanage;  or  that  even  an  experienced  Democracy  may 
not  be  the  best  machine  for  governing."  (Ethics  of  Citizenship, 
p.  81.) 

And  again  as  stated  by  Professor  Woodburn: 

"It  is  the  old  truth  that  one  learns  to  do  by  doing.  There  is  no 
other  way.  Here  is  seen  the  unreason  of  the  contention  that  no  man 
is  entitled  to  the  enjoyment  of  political  rights  till  he  is  proved  fit  to 
exercise  them.  It  is  an  impossible  requirement.  Before  he  has  po- 
litical rights  no  man's  fitness  for  them  can  be  proved.  There  are 
certain  tests,  educational  and  economic,  which  may  be  accepted  as 
securities,  but  there  is  only  one  proof  of  fitness  —  the  experimen- 
tal proof  which  shows  how  men  use  their  rights  after  they  have 
them.  .  .  ." 

"The  ethical  argument  for  a  wide  suffrage  —  as  wide  as  person- 
ality and  manhood  —  is  that  voting  is  involved  in  the  right  of  self- 
government;  that  it  promotes  patriotism  and  leads  to  an  interest  in 
public  affairs;  that  it  tends  to  remove  discontent  and  promote  a 
feeling  of  partnership  and  responsibility;  that  civil  and  religious 
liberty  depend  upon  power,  and  that  the  community  or  body  of  men 
who  have  no  political  power  have  no  security  for  their  political  lib- 
erty; that  the  suffrage  is  an  enlightening  and  educational  agency 
and  that  only  by  active  citizenship  can  the  political  virtues  be  de- 
veloped." (Political  Parties,  p.  342.) 

This,  which  may  be  called  the  "harper  theory,"  is  directly 
contrary  to  the  doctrine  herein  advocated,  that  voting  is  a 
function  of  government  to  be  operated  solely  for  the  benefit  of 
the  state,  and  by  means  of  machinery  as  perfect  and  efficient 
as  art  and  science  can  make  it;  the  "harper"  theory  being 
that  the  election  power  house  is  a  practise  school  for  ama- 


FALSITY  OF   THE   " HARPER "   THEORY  349 

teurs  and  blockheads,  to  be  operated  in  the  vague  hope  that 
the  use  of  it  may  somehow  improve  their  natures  and  under- 
standings. The  mere  statement  of  this  proposition  ought  to 
make  its  gross  absurdity  manifest  to  everybody.  It  would 
justify  giving  the  suffrage  to  children  sixteen  years  of  age.  As 
well  propose  to  let  boys  snowball  the  passers  by,  because  it 
would  tend  to  give  them  exercise  and  raise  their  spirits;  or  to 
let  the  hens  scratch  in  the  garden,  because  they  get  such  bene- 
fit from  it. 

The  reasoning  of  the  extracts  above  given  strangely  ignores 
the  public  interests  directly  involved,  the  mischiefs  of  unwise 
and  corrupt  voting  and  the  real  purpose  and  history  of  public 
elections  in  this  country.  Not  a  word  as  to  the  importance 
of  selecting  honest  and  competent  men  for  office;  not  a  hint 
at  the  notorious  political  scandals  heretofore  caused  by  the 
frequent  election  of  fools  and  knaves;  nothing  said  about  the 
systematic  use  of  the  low  voting  class  as  organized  political 
banditti.  The  notedly  unfit  must  continue  to  vote  knavery 
and  folly  into  high  places,  and  the  honest  and  capable  must  be 
discredited  and  sent  to  the  rear;  peculation  and  blundering 
must  continue  indefinitely,  in  the  hope  that  a  set  of  ignorant, 
idle,  shiftless,  dissipated  and  worthless  men  may  learn  to  do 
well  by  being  trained  by  politicians  to  do  evil.  No  doubt  the 
act  of  voting  will  make  even  an  incapable  man  think  for  a  few 
minutes;  possibly  he  may  be  tempted  to  wonder  what  it  all 
means;  his  mind  may  be  instructed  as  that  of  the  small  child 
who  experiments  with  a  hammer  and  a  looking  glass.  We  are 
told  that  the  "harper  is  not  made  otherwise  than  by  harping," 
but  his  practising  is  conducted  under  the  control  of  a  master, 
and  not  at  a  public  function.  A  better  illustration  than  Aris- 
totle's harper  would  be  the  Irishman  in  company,  who  had 
never  played  the  violin  but  was  willing  he  said  to  do  his  best 
if  desired.  "How  can  the  capable  voter  be  made  except  by 
voting  capably?"  What  is  complained  of  is  that  he  is  voting 
not  capably  but  incapably;  and  is  being  trained  for  that  pur- 
pose. The  assertion  that  men  cannot  be  trained  for  any  func- 


350      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN    THE   UNITED   STATES 

tion  except  by  the  exercise  of  it  is  absurd.  The  universal 
practice  of  mankind  is  to  the  contrary.  According  to  the 
"harper"  theory,  lawyers,  doctors  and  engineers  should  be  ad- 
mitted to  practise,  and  army  officers  granted  commissions 
without  preparation;  since  no  man  can  prove  his  ability  in 
anything  until  he  has  attempted  its  exercise.  While  it  is 
perfectly  true  that  no  man's  fitness  for  any  enterprise,  pro- 
fession or  work  can  be  finally  ascertained  except  by  actual 
test,  and  not  always  then,  yet  preparation  may  be  required 
and  preliminary  tests  made  whereby  the  capacity  of  classes 
of  men  can  be  judged  in  advance ;  and  the  fear  of  the  mischiefs 
that  the  ignorant  or  unskilled  practitioner  may  do  calls  for  the 
requirement  of  these  wise  precautions.  It  is  well  known  that 
appropriate  preparatory  instruction  and  discipline  tend  to 
qualify  men  for  certain  duties,  and  the  lack  of  them  to  dis- 
qualify them  therefor;  that  a  class  of  men  trained  for  law, 
engineering,  medicine,  surgery,  or  the  army  will  probably  be- 
come competent  officers,  engineers,  lawyers,  doctors,  etc., 
while  untrained  men  will  be  absolutely  incompetent.  Lay- 
men are  not  put  on  the  bench,  there  to  learn  the  law  at  the 
expense  of  a  series  of  blunders.  The  same  theory  which  is  ap- 
plied in  licensing  men  for  the  professions  and  in  selections  for 
the  judiciary  is  that  which  should  be  applied  in  establishing 
suffrage  tests.  Those  who  desire  to  be  allowed  to  meddle  with 
government  should  first  be  required  to  think;  and  if  ignorant, 
to  learn  in  some  other  way  than  at  the  expense  of  the  public 
weal.  The  training  of  men  as  voters  should  be  carried  on  in 
the  school  of  life,  where  their  mistakes  will  injure  only  them- 
selves, and  that  to  a  small  degree,  and  not  the  whole  com- 
munity or  nation  to  a  great  degree.  To  permit  people  who 
have  never  practised  thinking,  to  begin  by  experimenting  in 
the  making  of  laws  to  govern  their  neighbors,  or  in  the  ap- 
pointment of  officials,  is  preposterous.  The  late  war  and  a 
hundred  other  similar  experiences  ought  surely  to  have  taught 
the  most  silly  of  our  doctrinaires,  and  the  most  absurd  of  our 
demagogues,  how  dangerous  it  is  for  fools  to  meddle  with  the 


FALSITY  OF   THE   "HARPER57   THEORY  351 

affairs  of  government,  and  how  reprehensible  it  is  for  sensible 
people  to  permit  the  fools  to  do  so. 

What  these  writers  above  quoted  must  mean  if  they  mean 
anything  practicable,  is  that  those  who  are  already  capable 
voters  are  stimulated  by  the  actual  exercise  of  the  franchise 
into  greater  curiosity  and  knowledge  of  public  affairs.  This 
is  undoubtedly  true;  the  young  doctor  learns  by  practice,  but 
only  after  he  is  qualified  to  practise.  An  untrained  man  would 
never  become  a  competent  physician  by  killing  patients.  The 
argument  for  the  "harper"  theory  confuses  the  question;  it 
ignores  the  difference  in  capacity  between  classes  of  citizens, 
and  thus  misses  the  point.  It  urges  the  educational  value  of 
the  suffrage  to  all  voters  without  making  a  proper  distinction 
between  the  intelligent  and  propertied  men  and  the  unintelli- 
gent floaters  and  other  controllable  voters.  But  it  is  not  pro- 
posed to  disfranchise  the  former,  and  they  do  not  need  the 
suffrage  for  educational  purposes.  The  question  then  is  en- 
tirely confined  to  the  venal  and  otherwise  dangerous  residuum, 
whether  they  shall  be  invited  to  take  part  in  government 
merely  in  order  to  stimulate  them  to  think  on  state  questions. 
The  answer  cannot  be  doubtful.  We  may  recognize  the  fact 
that  the  interest  in  politics  of  an  already  capable  voter  is  prob- 
ably stimulated  by  his  taking  part  in  an  election;  but  the  pro- 
posal that  a  dishonest  or  incapable  man's  vote  should  be  in- 
vited merely  for  the  purpose  of  starting  his  dormant  interest 
in  politics,  or  in  the  hope  of  stimulating  him  to  be  more  of  a 
patriot  and  less  of  a  rascal  is  ridiculous. 

There  is  as  already  pointed  out  in  a  previous  chapter  a 
school  of  preparation  and  a  test  for  voters  in  full  operation, 
of  whose  valuable  instruction  the  state  may  take  the  benefit; 
namely  the  school  of  business  and  the  test  of  business  success. 
In  that  school  all  may  aspire  to  earn  the  certificate  of  dili- 
gence, industry  and  good  judgment,  which  in  the  shape  of  a 
fair  amount  of  material  prosperity  is  given  to  all  successful 
aspirants.  This  method  will  not  be  infallible  any  more  than 
the  graduate  professional  examinations;  but  it  will  establish 


352       POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

the  principle  of  fitness;  it  will  purify  and  elevate  politics  and 
will  afford  a  fairer  test  than  any  other  at  present  known  to 
the  world. 

In  the  foregoing  discussion  it  has  been  conceded  for  the 
sake  of  argument,  that  voting  might  possibly  be  a  means  of 
moral  or  mental  development  to  the  voter.  But  the  assumption 
is  unwarranted  and  contrary  to  the  facts.  There  is  no  healthy 
stimulus  of  any  kind  to  be  gained  in  manhood  suffrage  poli- 
tics. The  spectacle  of  popular  elections  as  at  present  con- 
ducted, and  the  display  of  fraud  and  humbug  which  they  pre- 
sent, is  demoralizing  to  the  whole  nation,  and  especially  to  its 
young  men.  The  moral  injury  to  the  voter  caused  by  the 
operation  of  universal  suffrage,  and  by  the  immoral  attitude  of 
the  nation  solemnly  asserting  the  falsity  that  the  vote  of  the 
ignorant  and  disorderly  is  as  valuable  as  that  of  the  orderly 
and  educated  man  was  recognized  by  John  Stuart  Mill  in  his 
work  on  Representative  Government,  where  he  says  that  equal 
voting  is  "in  principle  wrong,  because  recognizing  a  wrong 
"standard,  and  exercising  a  bad  influence  on  the  voter's  mind. 
"It  is  not  useful,  but  hurtful,  that  the  constitution  of  the  coun- 
try should  declare  ignorance  to  be  entitled  to  as  much  po- 
litical power  as  knowledge."  (P.  188.)  That  the  practical 
influence  of  political  life  as  at  present  conducted  tends  rather 
to  degrade  than  to  elevate  the  masses  is  the  universal  testi- 
mony of  all  having  knowledge  on  the  subject.  The  pursuit  of 
politics  as  a  business  is  vile,  and  its  continued  practice  must 
have  a  deteriorating  effect  on  those  engaged  in  it.  As  for  the 
influence  of  ordinary  political  activity  upon  the  average  voter, 
it  is  in  no  way  beneficial ;  if  anything  it  is  injurious.  For  gen- 
erations, worthless  men  have  been  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  suf- 
frage in  the  United  States.  It  has  never  made  an  intellectual 
man  out  of  an  ignorant  one,  nor  reformed  a  drunkard,  but  it 
has  created  many  drunkards  and  loafers,  and  has  had  the  effect 
of  training  many  to  sell  their  votes  and  to  spend  their  time  in 
low  and  disreputable  local  political  intrigues.  As  for  the  ma- 
jority, tho§e  who  confine  their  political  activities  to  voting  for 


FALSITY  OF    THE   "HARPER"    THEORY  353 

one  of  two  candidates  without  any  strong  convictions  in  his 
favor,  they  cannot  be  said  to  receive  thereby  any  ethical  or  in- 
tellectual exercise  or  benefit  whatever. 

"Mere  existence"  (says  Bagehot)  "under  a  good  government 
"is  more  instructive  than  the  power  of  now  and  then  contribut- 
ing to  a  bad  government."  (Parliamentary  Reform,  p.  340.) 
The  mere  act  of  voting  for  a  man  or  a  measure  without  proper 
knowledge  is  demoralizing  to  the  mind  and  deadening  to  the 
conscience.  Nor  is  there  moral  stimulus  in  the  exercise  of  a 
trifling  privilege,  which  is  also  enjoyed  by  the  meanest  and  the 
least  worthy,  and  the  employment  whereof  is  usually  at  best 
a  mere  futility,  and  frequently  a  farce.  What  moral  elevation 
can  be  gained  from  voting  to  put  in  place  either  a  humbug 
whom  you  know,  or  a  non-entity  whom  you  don't  know?  And 
yet  this  is  about  what  the  exercise  of  the  franchise  usually 
amounts  to  in  every  village,  city  and  town  in  the  United  States. 

The  "harper"  suffrage  doctrine  in  its  entirety  was  in  the 
decade  from  1865  to  1875  applied  to  the  Southern  states,  when 
the  negroes  were  granted  the  suffrage  in  compliance  with  the 
hysterical  demands  of  demagogues,  fanatics,  and  sentimen- 
talists, who  made  the  American  people  believe  that  all  a  man 
had  to  do  to  become  a  harper  was  to  get  a  harp  and  keep  harp- 
ing. The  disastrous  results  were  told  in  a  previous  chapter  of 
this  book.  The  history  of  that  experiment  with  its  sordid  in- 
cidents, ought  to  be  sufficient  to  convince  the  most  credulous 
believer  in  popular  rule,  that  our  Revolutionary  ancestors  were 
right  in  insisting  that  "a  silk  purse  cannot  be  made  out  of  a 
"sow's  ear,"  that  there  should  be  no  harping  except  under  the 
supervision  of  a  competent  master,  and  that  an  untrained 
musical  performer  at  a  concert  is  certain  to  spoil  the  perform- 
ance, disgrace  himself,  and  benefit  nobody. 


CHAPTER   XXV 

ANSWER    TO    SUGGESTION    THAT    UNLIMITED    SUFFRAGE 
IS   A  PART  OF  AMERICAN  LIBERTY 

"In  all  these  scenes  that  I  have  mentioned  I  learn  one  thing 
that  I  never  knew  before  and  that  is  that  the  key  to  Lib- 
erty is  not  in  the  hands  of  License,  but  Convention  holds 
it.  Comity  has  a  toll-gate  at  which  you  must  pay,  or  you 
may  not  enter  the  land  of  Freedom.  In  all  the  glitter, 
the  seeming  desire,  the  parade,  the  abandon,  I  see  this 
law,  unobtrusive,  yet  like  iron,  prevail.  Therefore,  in 
Manhattan  you  must  obey  those  unwritten  laws,  and  then 
you  will  be  freest  of  the  free.  If  you  decline  to  be  bound 
by  them,  you  put  on  shackles!1  (0.  Henry,  A  Ramble 
in  Aphasia.) 

THERE  is  no  doubt  a  vague  impression  abroad,  which  though 
entirely  erroneous,  is  somewhat  generally  entertained,  that 
American  manhood  or  universal  suffrage  is  in  some  way  actually 
or  historically  connected  with  American  liberties.  Indeed,  in 
some  minds  the  right  to  vote  for  something  or  for  someone,  is 
either  confused  or  confounded  with  liberty  itself,  or  is  regarded 
as  the  guarantee  or  guardian  of  liberty,  or  its  open  and  visible 
sign,  or  a  combination  of  all  three.  To  some,  the  universal  bal- 
lot is  a  sort  of  fetish,  which  they  distrust  and  despise  yet  dare 
not  offend.  There  are  even  those  who  will  grant  all  here  re- 
counted of  the  evils  and  stupidities  of  manhood  suffrage,  and 
yet  will  answer  that  all  these,  and  more,  if  need  be,  must  we  en- 
dure for  the  sake  of  the  preservation  of  liberty;  which  in  some 
unexplained  way  depends  on  the  continuation  of  the  voting 
privilege  to  those  incapable  of  properly  exercising  it.  This 
prepossession  is  not  sustainable  by  the  reason  or  facts  of  the 

354 


UNLIMITED   SUFFRAGE   NOT   A  BULWARK   OF   LIBERTY      355 

case,  but  just  because  it  is  sentimental  rather  than  rational,  it 
is  for  that  very  reason  more  difficult  to  overthrow  by  logic.  It 
is  easier  to  meet  an  argument  than  to  dispel  an  illusion  or  to 
destroy  a  prejudice.  It  is  especially  difficult  when  the  preju- 
dice is  not  definite  nor  formulated,  but  lies  dormant  in  the 
mind ;  shadowy,  vague  and  traditional,  and  yet  amounting  to  a 
real  obstacle  to  the  acceptance  of  the  truth.  One  might  do 
battle  with  it  by  arraying  sentiment  against  sentiment;  the 
true  against  the  false;  offsetting  the  sham  sentiment  for  an 
imaginary  liberty  by  a  true  impulse  of  patriotic  indignation  at 
the  frauds,  rascalities,  corruptions  and  waste  attached  to  the 
wardenship  of  this  pretended  guardian  of  liberty;  but  this 
play  of  sentiment  against  sentiment  can  safely  be  left  to  work 
itself  out  in  the  breast  of  the  reader.  This  chapter  will  there- 
fore be  devoted  to  an  appeal  to  reason  to  dispel  whatever  prej- 
udice in  favor  of  manhood  suffrage  as  a  supposed  bulwark  of 
liberty  may  still  linger  in  the  reader's  mind. 

First,  as  to  our  political  liberties.  A  convincing  proof  that 
the  suffrages  of  the  unpropertied  class  are  not  needed  to  pre- 
serve them  is  found  in  the  fact  that  they  were  originally  se- 
cured without  those  suffrages.  We  are  not  indebted  to  man- 
hood suffrage  for  our  free  institutions,  nor  for  the  valuable 
rights  and  guarantees  secured  by  the  Constitution,  nor  for 
the  ideas  and  aspirations  from  which  those  institutions 
sprung.  These  rights  and  guarantees  were  secured,  these  free 
institutions  were  founded  by  practical  and  intelligent  men  of 
affairs;  the  propertied  leaders  of  a  propertied  constituency, 
and  by  the  use  of  practical  methods,  to  whose  success  the 
populace  only  contributed  their  obedience  to  directions. 
Neither  the  Revolution,  nor  the  Constitution  recognized  the 
doctrine  of  a  natural  right  to  the  franchise.  The  Revolution 
in  fact  did  not  deal  with  individual  rights  at  all;  it  was  merely 
a  movement  to  get  rid  of  British  imperial  rule,  not  in  order  to 
obtain  more  liberty,  but  to  secure  greater  efficiency  in  gov- 
ernment. It  came  to  pass  because  the  thirteen  colonies  had 
developed  to  such  a  point,  that  their  general  interests  and 


356      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

defense  required  the  establishment  of  a  central  authority. 
The  British  Parliament  attempted  to  function  for  that  purpose 
by  laying  taxes  etc.;  the  colonies  revolted,  and  finally  created 
a  central  governing  and  taxing  power  of  their  own,  necessi- 
tating political  independence.  The  only  question  settled  by 
the  Revolution  was  that  the  supreme  governing  power  should 
be  American  and  not  British;  it  in  no  way  concerned  itself 
with  the  individual  liberties  personal  or  political  of  the  Ameri- 
can people,  nor  their  relations  to  the  state;  it  asserted  no  new 
principle  of  government,  nor  did  it  enlarge  the  suffrage.  The 
United  States  Constitution  was  framed  by  delegates,  all  of 
whom  were  men  of  property,  and  represented  propertied  con- 
stituencies. In  short,  American  Independence  was  schemed, 
the  Union  founded,  the  Constitution  adopted,  and  all  the 
foundations  of  the  greatness  and  freedom  of  this  country  es- 
tablished, without  the  aid  of  manhood  suffrage,  without  the 
unpropertied  vote,  and  by  men  who  believed  in  and  practised 
a  property  qualification  system.  It  is  not  even  likely  that  an 
inferior  class  of  men  would  have  ever  done  the  work,  which 
required  skill,  experience  and  ripe  wisdom;  qualities  more 
often  found  in  the  successful  than  in  the  unsuccessful,  and 
never  to  be  looked  for  in  the  populace. 

Therefore,  in  our  organic  scheme  of  political  liberty,  man- 
hood suffrage  counts  for  nothing,  and  its  only  activity  in  rela- 
tion thereto  has  been  to  misuse  it.  But,  says  one,  how  about 
the  citizen's  daily  enjoyment  of  freedom  and  sense  of  freedom 
in  actual  life?  The  people  of  the  United  States  like  those  of 
other  civilized  countries,  enjoy  a  life  enriched  with  a  thousand 
material  comforts  and  conveniences,  with  a  sense  of  assurance 
of  their  continued  enjoyment;  is  that  or  any  part  of  it  due  to 
or  supported  by  manhood  suffrage?  Not  at  all.  None  of  this 
can  be  credited  to  any  extension  or  enlargement  of  popular 
privileges  or  liberty,  either  by  widening  of  the  franchise  or 
otherwise.  The  tendency  of  democracy  is  not  towards  an  in- 
crease of  personal  individual  liberty,  and  the  act  of  voting, 
no  matter  how  conducted,  can  in  no  way  tend  to  confer  per- 


UNLIMITED   SUFFRAGE   NOT   A  BULWARK  OF   LIBERTY      357 

sonal  liberty  on  the  individual;  because  personal  liberty  is  not 
existent  in  any  civilized  society.  The  progress  of  the 
country  has  been  marked  by  development  in  the  direction  of 
the  application  of  restraint  to  human  actions;  in  other  words 
by  the  very  opposite  of  the  enlargement  of  individual  liberty. 
The  nearest  approach  to  a  free  man  in  a  modern  community, 
is  the  tramp  who  saunters  along  the  road;  and  his  existence 
is  maintained,  not  by  operations  of  liberty  but  by  methods  of 
compulsion.  The  very  road  upon  which  he  walks  is  there 
because  other  men  were  compelled  by  government  to  build  and 
maintain  it.  And  so,  the  happiness  of  each  of  us  is  assured  to 
him  not  by  liberty  granted,  but  by  liberty  withheld  as  well 
from  him  as  from  his  neighbors.  A  familiar  instance  of  this 
is  in  the  creation  and  use  of  a  public  park  in  a  great  city; 
an  artificially  created  privilege,  which  is  not  conceivable  with- 
out the  strictest  regulation,  restraint,  and  denial  of  individual 
liberty  of  action.  Personal  liberty  as  understood  by  the 
masses,  that  is  the  privilege  of  doing  as  one  pleases,  does  not 
exist  in  any  civilized  community,  and  could  not  be  introduced 
to  any  appreciable  extent  without  steps  toward  anarchy.  This 
is  not  a  land  of  liberty,  but  a  land  of  civilization,  which  is  the 
antithesis  of  liberty.  As  has  been  well  said  by  Moorfield 
Storey,  "Civilization  is  the  process  of  restraining  the  will  of  the 
individual  by  law." 

Every  American  citizen  is  born  and  lives  under  the  whole- 
some but  constant  and  severe  restraint  of  a  high  civilization. 
Such  a  thing  as  personal  liberty  is  unknown  to  him  from  the 
beginning;  his  infant  limbs  are  clad,  his  baby  food  prescribed, 
his  habits  regulated,  according  to  rules  established  long  before 
he  was  born.  As  he  matures,  his  boyish  dress,  his  books,  his 
studies,  his  language  and  his  play  are  nearly  all  arbitrary  and 
conventional.  He  must  eat  certain  food  at  certain  times;  his 
hours  for  sleep  and  waking  are  fixed  by  others.  This  system 
continues  through  school  and  college,  and  when  he  enters  the 
business  world  he  finds  an  absolute  regime  of  dress,  food, 
hours,  employment,  language,  games,  habits  and  life  generally 


POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

from  which  there  is  no  escape.  Even  his  beliefs,  historical, 
religious,  and  scientific,  are  all  laid  out  for  him.  When  he 
goes  on  a  short  vacation  even  for  a  tramp  in  the  mountains, 
his  movements  are  all  restrained,  not  only  by  the  rigors  of  na- 
ture and  the  daily  needs  of  existence,  but  by  the  rules  of  so- 
ciety. In  fact  all  his  relations  to  other  men,  involve  social 
rules  of  behaviour  which  must  be  obeyed,  and  all  these  rules, 
laws,  fashions,  customs,  beliefs  and  obligations  were  fixed 
without  consulting  him,  and  in  most  cases  before  he  and  his 
parents  were  born. 

This  subjection  to  Society  is  a  condition  of  our  life.  The 
president  is  just  as  much  bound  by  it  as  the  poorest  day  la- 
borer; it  is  the  result  of  the  growth  of  population,  of  public 
order,  of  civilization.  The  business  man  arising  in  the  morning 
and  going  out  to  his  work,  is  reassured  by  seeing  the  police- 
man at  the  corner;  with  a  despotic  gesture  the  officer  stops 
the  traffic  and  the  man  crosses  the  street  in  safety.  Though 
he  may  have  enemies,  he  knows  they  will  not  be  permitted  to 
insult  him  in  the  street,  nor  to  libel  him  in  the  morning  papers, 
nor  in  the  private  correspondence  just  then  being  delivered  by 
the  government  postal  carrier,  because  happily  free  speech  is 
not  permitted  in  civilized  countries.  He  enters  the  government 
inspected  street  car,  elevated  or  subway,  protected  by  strict 
authority  from  the  presence  of  people  with  contagious  diseases. 
He  encounters  the  same  regulative  tendency  in  his  private 
business  life.  In  the  elevator,  in  his  office,  in  the  commerce  ex- 
change, in  his  transactions  with  banks  and  merchants,  in  the 
restaurants,  everywhere  and  all  day  long,  he  is  under  severe 
restrictions,  without  which,  as  applied  to  others,  he  could  not 
transact  his  business  or  even  live  in  safety.  The  lease  to  his 
office  which  fifty  years  ago  contained  but  a  few  simple  stipu- 
lations, now  includes  a  hundred  strict  requirements  formerly 
unheard  of,  all  giving  great  power  to  the  landlord  but  really 
operating  for  the  protection  of  the  tenant.  A  similar  govern- 
ment is  seen  in  social  life;  a  man's  manners  and  the  tones  of 
his  voice,  his  attitude,  gestures  and  general  behaviour  are  reg- 
ulated by  despotic  custom.  All  this  restraint  and  discipline, 


UNLIMITED   SUFFRAGE    NOT   A   BULWARK   OF    LIBERTY      359 

though  it  may  seem  to  curtail  liberty,  yet  in  an  indirect  but 
perfectly  perceptible  way  it  actually  enlarges  its  scope,  by 
giving  access  to  new  fields  of  enjoyment,  made  available  as 
such  by  restrictions  on  their  abuse.  So  that  all  our  satisfac- 
tions, all  our  joys  and  pleasures,  our  prosperity,  our  bodily 
health,  our  very  lives  are  derived  from  and  depend  not  upon 
liberty  but  upon  protection,  and  that  moral  and  physical  re- 
straint which  is  incident  to  protection. 

This  dependence  of  man  upon  law,  order  and  restraint  for 
every  good  in  life,  is  not  a  new  thing,  nor  a  creation  of  modern 
times;  it  is  inherent  in  the  nature  of  human  society;  and  was 
as  true  of  the  primitive  man  as  of  ourselves.  This  is  not 
always  understood.  Some  visionary  writers  have  pronounced 
a  state  of  liberty  to  be  the  ideal  state,  and  have  imagined 
liberty  as  a  precious  boon  originally  bestowed  upon  man,  and 
enjoyed  in  past  ages  in  a  higher  degree  than  at  present;  they 
regard  restrictions  as  evils,  incident  to  civilization,  perhaps, 
but  still  evils.  They  consider  liberty  to  be  something  positive 
and  beneficial  in  its  character,  like  a  birthright  which  man 
has  from  time  to  time  bargained  away  like  Esau  for  the  pot- 
tage of  social  advantages.  This  is  an  utterly  false  and  mis- 
chievous conception  which  has  heretofore  helped  to  create 
trouble,  and  being  interpreted  by  half-educated  leaders  to  a 
foolish  populace  may  do  so  again.  Looking  back  as  far  as  we 
choose  down  the  vista  of  the  past,  we  find  that  then  just  as 
to-day  law  and  order  made  life  worth  living,  and  liberty  or 
the  absence  of  restraint  meant  misery  and  death.  To  find 
a  condition  of  perfect  liberty  we  must  go  back  to  a  solitary 
savage;  for  complete  human  liberty  and  solitary  savagery  are 
practically  identical.  From  that  point  on  every  addition  to 
human  society  or  civilization,  whether  in  the  shape  of  persons 
or  property,  carries  with  it  as  a  necessary  incident  its  own 
demand  for  protection  and  restraint.  Assume  if  you  please 
the  existence  of  the  solitary  primitive  man,  imagined  by  these 
dreamers  as  having  perfect  liberty,  yet  that  supposed  liberty 
did  not  include  any  positive  or  definite  rights  whatever.  It 


360      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

did  not  for  example  include  the  right  to  interfere  with  others, 
because  the  others  did  not  then  exist.  When  society  came  in 
contact  with  him,  he  did  not  surrender  to  her  any  previous 
rights  in  relation  to  others  because  such  rights  could  not  be 
created  till  those  others  actually  arrived.  Nor  could  he  have 
possessed  liberty  in  the  sense  of  exemption  from  social  rules,  be- 
cause as  there  was  no  society,  there  were  no  such  rules.  Society 
therefore  and  government  came  as  a  clear  gain  to  humanity; 
they  were  additions  to  the  imaginary  abstract  or  natural  man 
and  to  his  life;  and  the  restrictions  referred  to  are  but  part  of 
the  gift;  they  are  incidental  to  it,  and  constitute  its  essential 
condition,  and  in  no  way  change  its  character  as  a  clear  benefit 
and  gift  to  man.  Thus,  if  one  gives  me  a  horse,  it  in  no  way 
detracts  from  the  character  of  the  gift  that  I  must  feed  and 
shelter  the  animal.  If  I  give  a  boy  a  drum,  it  is  none  the  less 
a  clear  gift  because  he  is  forbidden  to  drive  a  hole  in  its  head. 
His  liberty  is  not  thereby  restricted,  because  before  he  had 
the  gift  he  was  also  unable  to  punch  the  hole.  The  imaginary 
original  solitary  man,  upon  the  arrival  of  a  neighbor,  gains  in 
companionship,  protection,  help,  division  of  labor,  etc.  He 
loses  nothing  in  being  forbidden  to  kill,  to  maim  or  to  rob  the 
newcomer.  First,  because  the  privilege  of  wanton  destruction 
does  not  exist  as  a  human  right,  nor  is  it  a  part  of  natural 
human  liberty,  but  is  in  its  nature  and  effect  a  curtailment 
thereof.  Second,  because,  in  his  former  solitary  state,  there  was 
no  one  in  existence  whom  he  might  kill,  maim  or  rob.  Coming 
up  then  to  tribal  existence,  and  observing  the  very  earliest 
and  lowest  exhibitions  of  social  life,  we  find  no  trace  of  the 
mythical  liberty  the  theorists  have  imagined,  but  rather  the 
practice  of  restraint  applied  by  law  or  custom  as  far  as  requi- 
site to  protect  the  individual.  One  savage  is  not  permitted  to 
assault  another,  without  paying  the  penalty  according  to  the 
custom  of  the  tribe,  or  suffering  the  vengeance  of  the  assaulted 
party  or  his  friends.  He  does  not  possess  the  liberty  to  destroy 
or  appropriate  any  ornament,  weapon  or  other  property  that 
any  one  of  his  fellow  savages  possesses.  To  the  first  beginnings 


UNLIMITED   SUFFRAGE   NOT   A   BULWARK   OF   LIBERTY      361 

of  property,  is  attached  as  a  part  thereof,  the  incident  of  pro- 
tective restraint  upon  its  non-owners.  When,  whether  in  bar- 
barous or  highly  civilized  communities,  the  citizen  is  forbidden 
to  plunder  or  injure  property,  he  is  not  thereby  deprived  of 
any  part  of  a  man's  inherent  liberty;  the  restraint  is  merely 
a  qualification  or  condition  of  the  property  in  question  which 
does  not  affect  third  parties  or  detract  from  their  previous 
rights.  When  modern  society  forbids  trespassing  on,  or  plun- 
dering cultivated  fields  or  orchards,  it  does  not  deprive  any 
one  of  anything  that  his  ancestors  theretofore  had,  because  in 
their  primitive  state  there  was  no  right  of  trespass  on  or 
plunder  of  that  property;  there  were  no  cultivated  fields  or 
orchards  to  rob  or  on  which  to  trespass. 

In  short,  there  is  no  such  condition  either  natural  or  ac- 
quired as  that  of  human  liberty,  nor  does  liberty  of  any  sort 
exist  in  this  world  or  even  in  the  whole  universe.  The  very 
word  "liberty"  is  without  concrete  signification,  it  is  a  mere 
negation  like  "anarchy"  and  "nothingness,"  and  represents  an 
idea  which  is  incompatible  with  government  of  any  sort.  This 
truth  is  fully  realized  by  the  best  students  of  civics,  and  is 
just  as  true  of  American  or  republican  government  as  of  that  of 
any  other  country  or  system.  "All  government,"  says  Sir 
William  Temple,  "is  a  restraint  on  liberty,  and  when  men  seem 
"to  contend  for  liberty,  it  is  indeed  but  to  have  a  change  of 
"those  who  rule."  The  consent  of  the  governed  can  be  given 
only  to  the  mere  form  of  government,  said  Webster,  in  a 
speech  at  the  Charleston  Bar  Dinner,  1847,  and  further: 
"Liberty  is  the  creation  of  law,  essentially  different  from  that 
"authorized  licentiousness  that  trespasses  on  right.  It  is  a 
"legal  and  refined  idea,  the  offspring  of  high  civilization,  which 
"the  savage  never  understood  and  never  can  understand.  Lib- 
"erty  exists  in  proportion  to  wholesome  restraint;  the  more 
"restraint  on  others  to  keep  off  from  us,  the  more  liberty  we 
"have.  It  is  an  error  to  suppose  that  liberty  consists  in  a 
"paucity  of  laws  —  that  man  is  free  who  is  protected  from 
"injury." 


362      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

In  thus  showing  that  what  is  commonly  called  "liberty" 
really  consists  in  restraint,  Webster  in  effect  smashed  the  silly 
"liberty"  legend.  And  Ruskin  voices  the  same  idea  (Pol. 
Economy,  Works,  Vol.  17,  p.  432):  "Americans,  as  a  nation, 
"set  their  trust  in  Liberty  and  in  Equality,  of  which  I  detest 
"the  one,  and  deny  the  possibility  of  the  other."  And  again, 
(Vol.  8,  p.  248) : 

"How  false  is  the  conception,  how  frantic  the  pursuit  of  that 
treacherous  phantom  which  men  call  Liberty;  most  treacherous, 
indeed,  of  all  phantoms ;  for  the  feeblest  ray  of  reason  might  surely 
show  us  that  not  only  its  attainment,  but  its  being,  was  impossible. 
There  is  no  such  thing  in  the  Universe.  There  can  never  be.  The 
stars  have  it  not;  the  earth  has  it  not;  the  sea  has  it  not;  and  we 
men  for  the  mockery  and  semblance  of  it  have  used  heaviest  pun- 
ishment. ...  If  there  be  any  one  principle  more  widely  than  another 
confessed  by  every  utterance,  or  more  sternly  than  another  imprinted 
on  every  atom  of  the  visible  creation,  that  principle  is  not  liberty, 
but  law." 

"The  only  liberty,"  says  Burke,  "that  is  valuable  is  a  liberty 
"connected  with  order,  that  not  only  exists  along  with  order 
"and  virtue,  but  which  cannot  exist  at  all  without  them;  it  in- 
heres in  all  good  and  steady  government,  is  in  its  substance 
"and  vital  principle."  The  blessings  commonly  called  by  the 
name  of  liberty  are  therefore  seen  to  be  the  result  of  just  and 
efficient  government,  and  the  evidence  is  overwhelming  that 
of  such  government  in  this  country  manhood  suffrage  has  been 
a  constant  enemy. 

Sometimes  a  foolish  suggestion  may  be  seen  in  print  that 
manhood  suffrage  is  needed  to  safeguard  religious  liberty  in 
the  United  States.  Religious  liberty  and  political  liberty  are 
practically  identical.  The  noted  religious  struggles  and  per- 
secutions in  Europe  were  really  political  affairs;  and  the 
framers  of  our  Constitution  included  therein  guarantees  for 
religious  freedom  as  a  matter  of  course.  No  further  safe- 
guard is  needed.  The  English  race  has  everywhere  adopted 
religious  liberty  as  a  definite  policy  ever  since  1688,  and  the 


UNLIMITED   SUFFRAGE   NOT   A   BULWARK   OF   LIBERTY      363 

right  to  religious  liberty  is  no  longer  questioned  by  anyone, 
either  in  this  or  in  any  English-speaking  country.  There  are 
say  two  hundred  different  religious  sects  in  the  United  States, 
some  of  which  have  but  very  few  followers,  and  are  destitute 
of  means  or  influence  to  defend  themselves  against  small  or 
great  persecutions;  yet  no  one  ever  hears  of  their  being  mo- 
lested or  even  seriously  criticised  for  their  religious  views,  and 
their  security  and  protection  are  amply  guaranteed  by  the 
fundamental  law  and  settled  opinions  of  the  American  people. 
There  is  no  more  need  of  shaping  our  suffrage  laws  so  as  to 
guard  against  religious  persecution,  than  there  is  of  private 
gentlemen  wearing  swords,  or  of  our  building  our  dwellings  in 
the  shape  of  castles  for  defense,  as  our  ancestors  did  in  the 
England  of  the  Plantagenets.  But  were  it  otherwise,  and  were 
any  tendency  to  religious  intolerance  apparent  in  this  country, 
it  is  almost  certain  that  it  would  crop  out  among  the  unedu- 
cated and  the  thriftless  rabble,  and  not  among  the  well-to-do, 
the  educated  or  the  middle  class.  History  and  experience  teach 
that  it  is  among  the  lowest  class  that  the  strongest  prejudices 
exist,  and  that  it  is  that  class  who  are  the  most  violent,  tyran- 
nical and  intolerant  in  their  expression.  The  great  religious 
persecutions  authorized  by  governments  in  past  times  were 
incited  by  the  clamor  of  the  populace.  The  upper  and  more 
learned  classes  were  always  less  superstitious,  more  skeptical, 
tolerant  and  merciful.  It  was  the  Jewish  mob  who  demanded 
the  death  of  Christ  when  the  enlightened  Roman  Governor 
would  have  set  him  free;  it  was  the  Roman  rabble  who  roared 
for  the  blood  of  the  early  Christians;  and  nearly  all  subse- 
quent religious  persecutions  in  civilized  nations,  have  either 
been  in  accordance  with  popular  opinion,  or  have  been  used 
as  weapons  in  the  strife  between  two  factions  of  the  people 
at  large.  It  was  the  lower  classes  of  French  who  slaughtered 
the  Catholics  in  the  time  of  the  French  Revolution.  In  our 
own  time,  the  brutal  and  lawless  attacks  on  religious  minorities 
in  this  and  other  countries,  the  pogroms  of  the  Jews  in  Russia 
and  Poland,  and  the  massacres  of  Christians  in  the  Turkish 


364      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

dominions  were  popular  performances.  So  therefore,  judging 
by  the  past,  if  religious  liberty  should  ever  be  threatened  in 
this  country,  the  menace  would  not  come  from  the  educated 
or  middle  classes,  nor  from  such  thrifty  and  peaceable  workers 
as  may  have  accumulated  a  few  hundred  or  a  few  thousand 
dollars  of  property,  but  from  a  lawless  mob  of  the  unthinking 
class  who  degrade  our  elections. 

The  reader  may  now  fairly  ask,  what  then  was  the  struggle 
for  liberty  of  which  we  have  all  heard  so  much  as  continuing 
for  centuries  in  Europe  and  America?  It  had  two  aspects,  in 
both  of  which  the  sympathy  of  the  element  added  to  the 
voting  list  by  manhood  suffrage  has  been  consciously  or 
unconsciously  on  the  side  of  tyranny.  One  aspect  was  that  of 
the  resistance  of  religious  minorities  to  majority  oppres- 
sion; the  other,  the  resistance  of  business  men  to 
governmental  oppression,  by  way  of  excessive  taxes,  im- 
posts and  restrictions.  The  non-propertied  classes  would 
probably  in  the  one  case  have  swelled  the  tyran- 
nical majority,  and  in  the  other  would  have  favored  as  they 
still  do  interference  with  business  by  the  state.  In  the  middle 
ages  the  resistance  of  business  men  to  governmental  and  baro- 
nial exactions  was  almost  continuous,  and  was  displayed  by  agi- 
tations and  revolts  frequently  described  as  struggles  for  lib- 
erty. Always  the  real  object  was  the  same;  the  privilege 
claimed  by  business  men,  of  conducting  honest  and  peaceful 
industries,  businesses  and  exchanges  without  interference  and 
secured  from  confiscation.  There  has  also  been  in  the  past  a 
steady  clearing  away  by  merchants,  traders,  craftsmen  and 
their  friends  and  partisans,  of  obstacles  placed  by  govern- 
mental stupidity,  error  and  prejudice  in  the  way  of  peaceful 
labor,  business  and  general  betterment.  In  short  it  has  been 
a  struggle  to  put  business  men  and  business  methods  in  con- 
trol. These  contests  continue  everywhere;  they  are  still  going 
on  in  the  United  States;  but  the  non-propertied  classes  have 
never  joined  in  them  on  the  side  of  liberty;  they  have  been  and 
are  prejudicially  arrayed  against  business  methods  and  busi- 


UNLIMITED   SUFFRAGE   NOT   A  BULWARK  OF   LIBERTY      365 

ness  men.  The  business  world  has  always  had  to  win  its  way 
and  hold  its  ground  despite  them. 

The  other  aspect  of  the  so  called  struggle  for  liberty  in  the 
days  gone  by,  was  that  already  referred  to,  of  the  resistance 
of  religious  minorities  to  persecution.  This  persecution, 
though  governmental  in  form,  was  in  reality  a  majority  oppres- 
sion, in  which  the  government  merely  represented  the  prevailing 
opinion.  Such  were  the  persecutions  of  the  British  Protestant 
dissenters,  the  American  Quakers  and  Baptists,  and  the 
French  Huguenots.  Had  manhood  suffrage  then  prevailed, 
the  majority  demanding  the  persecutions  would  probably  have 
been  greater  and  more  truculent.  We  may  be  sure  that  the 
populace  would  have  uttered  no  word  for  toleration. 

Since  manhood  suffrage  has  been  established  the  people  have 
created  six  amendments  to  the  United  States  Constitution,  of 
which  five  were  unwise,  unjust  or  arbitrary  and  one  merely 
formal.  The  record  is  not  flattering  to  popular  wisdom  or 
justice.  Here  they  are: 

Article  XIII.  Abolished  slavery.  This  was  unjust  and  ar- 
bitrary. The  slave  owners  had  bought  and  paid  for  their 
slaves  under  legal  and  judicial  sanction.  To  emancipate  them 
without  compensation  to  the  owners  was  an  unauthorized  con- 
fiscation. England  paid  for  her  slaves  in  the  West  Indies  when 
she  set  them  free.  But  then,  the  British  voters  were  property 
owners  and  believers  in  property  rights. 

Articles  XIV  and  XV.  These  were  intended  to  give  the 
vote  to  the  newly  enfranchised  Southern  negroes.  After  pro- 
ducing much  turmoil,  political  rascality  and  misgovernment  in 
the  South,  the  enforcement  of  these  measures  was  abandoned 
and  they  are  now  dead  letter  provisions. 

Article  XVI.  This  was  not  a  new  measure;  it  provides  for 
an  income  tax  which  it  was  formerly  supposed  could  be  levied, 
and  was  levied,  till  it  was  found  by  judicial  inquiry  that 
the  Constitution  had  failed  to  authorize  it.  Its  ratification  was 
little  more  than  a  formality. 

Article  XVII.    This  provides  for  the  election  of  senators  in 


366      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE  UNITED   STATES 

Congress  by  the  people  instead  of  by  the  legislatures.  The 
result  has  been  a  strengthening  of  the  bosses  and  a  lowering  of 
quality  of  members  of  the  Senate. 

Article  XV III.  Prohibits  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  alco- 
holic liquors.  A  manifestly  arbitrary  and  oppressive  majority 
measure. 

The  operation  of  manhood  suffrage  in  our  great  cities  has 
clearly  been  tyrannical,  because  of  the  absence  of  proper  re- 
straint upon  evil  doers.  Can  any  one  truly  say  that  the  people 
of  these  cities  have  been  benefited  in  the  slightest  degree,  by 
the  so-called  privilege  of  voting  for  their  magistrates  or  rulers? 
Assuming  that  their  political  bosses  would  let  them  vote  as 
they  wished,  or  that  the  bosses  are  popular  agents,  and  that  the 
people  do  or  can  govern  in  their  cities,  where  is  the  public 
benefit?  It  seems  to  be  generally  conceded  that  on  the  whole 
the  city  of  Washington  is  the  best  managed  city  in  the  Union, 
and  it  is  governed  by  a  Congress  in  whose  choice  the  people  of 
Washington  have  no  share.  Does  any  one  find  his  comfort 
or  his  freedom  curtailed  or  his  life  in  danger  in  Washington? 
The  fact  is  that  the  exercise  of  suffrage  is  a  function,  whose  ob- 
ject is  not  to  preserve  liberty,  but  the  opposite,  namely,  to 
establish  proper  control,  and  when  that  can  be  effectively  done 
without  popular  elections  everybody  is  better  off. 

The  conclusion  of  the  whole  review  of  the  relation  between 
manhood  suffrage  and  the  liberty  of  the  citizen  is  that  happi- 
ness and  all  good  results  in  the  personal  relations  of  men  are 
to  be  found  not  in  liberty,  but  in  just  law,  order  and  restraint, 
which  no  one  believes  are  better  subserved  by  admission  of 
the  weak  and  ignorant  to  the  suffrage;  and  that  as  sound 
political  institutions  and  religious  toleration  were  achieved 
without  manhood  suffrage  in  the  past  they  would  probably  be 
safer  without  it  in  the  future. 

This  leads  one  naturally  to  the  subject  of  the  operation  of 
manhood  suffrage  in  connection  with  government  by  majorities 
in  the  present  day,  which  will  be  treated  in  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER   XXVI 

AN   UNQUALIFIED   NUMERICAL   MAJORITY   RULE   IS   NOT 
IN  ACCORD  WITH  GOOD  STATESMANSHIP 

For  wide  is  the  gate,  and  broad  is  the  way,  that  leadeth  to 
destruction,  and  many  there  be  which  go  in  thereat;  be- 
cause strait  is  the  gate,  and  narrow  is  the  way,  which 
leadeth  unto  life;  and  jeiv  there  be  that  find  it.  —  Mat- 
thew, vii:  13,  14. 

A  SPECIOUS  argument  in  favor  of  manhood  suffrage  is  some- 
times condensed  into  the  expression  "Let  the  majority  rule"; 
a  popular  catchword,  misleading  like  most  catchwords,  and  far 
from  expressing  a  sound  principle  in  politics.  That  our  na- 
tional polity  does  to  a  large  extent  recognize  the  legitimacy  of 
a  numerical  majority  power  is  true  enough;  but  it  neither 
does,  nor  ought  it,  declare  the  numerical  majority  opinion  to  be 
the  only,  nor  even  the  final  abiter.  No  thoroughly  enlightened 
scheme  of  government  of  a  great  nation  can  do  so,  for  pure  ma- 
jority government  is  merely  the  rule  of  brute  force.  Wisdom 
and  ability  are  usually  in  the  minority  in  this  world;  and  a 
better  saying  would  seem  to  be  "let  the  minority  rule";  in 
other  words,  let  patriotic  intelligence,  justice  and  efficiency 
bear  sway,  and  let  them  as  far  as  possible  lead  the  majority 
into  a  better  way.  In  the  practical  affairs  of  every  day  life, 
people  do  not  seek  to  learn  of  the  majority,  but  of  the  few. 
In  the  administration  of  justice  the  better  opinion  is  that  ma- 
jority verdicts  of  juries  should  not  be  received;  such  verdicts 
are  apt  to  be  hasty  and  careless,  and  to  lack  that  element  of 
care  and  deliberation  which  the  requirement  of  unanimity  tends 
to  produce.  In  a  casual  group  of  fifty  men,  the  opinion  of 
twenty-five,  properly  selected,  or  a  majority  of  them,  is  worth 

367 


368      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

far  more  than  the  opinion  of  a  chance  majority  of  the  total 
fifty.  In  nothing  except  politics  is  an  appeal  to  the  majority 
ever  made;  everyone  turns  to  a  small  minority  of  men,  or  even 
to  one  single  man,  for  guidance  in  every  important  conjuncture 
of  life.  When  a  serious  disease  attacks  a  man,  he  does  not 
take  a  vote  of  the  public  or  of  his  family,  friends  and  neigh- 
bors as  to  the  course  of  treatment  to  be  adopted  to  save  his 
life;  he  turns  to  one  learned  and  trustworthy  man,  and  puts 
himself  in  his  hands.  So  in  the  navigation  of  a  ship,  whether 
in  tempest  or  fair  weather;  the  trained  and  experienced  mind 
of  the  captain  controls  at  every  moment  of  the  voyage;  it  is 
the  same  in  the  conduct  of  a  law  suit;  of  a  business  enter- 
prise; of  the  construction  of  dwellings,  bridges,  railroads  and 
tunnels;  in  military  campaigns;  in  all  the  serious  undertakings 
of  life,  guidance  is  never  sought  in  the  voices  of  the  many,  but 
in  the  opinion  of  a  select  few  or  of  a  still  more  selected  one. 
It  is  a  fatal  error  in  the  manhood  suffrage  theory  that  it 
assumes  that  numbers  rule,  and  are  capable  of  giving  the  final 
sanction.  Such  is  not  the  fact.  Despite  all  that  demagogues 
may  do  or  say,  no  amount  of  vociferation,  resolutioning,  ap- 
plauding, cheering,  registering,  and  voting  will  serve  to  prevent 
or  delay  the  operation  of  natural  law.  Mind  and  reason  must 
govern  in  politics  as  elsewhere.  The  power  that  is  best  capable 
of  establishing  and  sustaining  governments  and  governmental 
systems  is  a  combination  of  forces;  including  principally 
energy,  intelligence  and  numbers,  producing  a  sum  total  of 
effectiveness.  When  allowed  free  play  to  its  powers,  as  in 
India  for  instance,  an  energetic  and  intelligent  minority  will 
often  control  an  inert  and  ignorant  majority.  The  basic  cause 
for  the  recognition  of  the  majority  principle  in  government,  is 
not  a  belief  in  majority  opinion,  but  an  assumption  that  the 
majority  actually  possesses  sufficient  physical  force  to  master 
the  minority,  and  that  therefore  in  the  last  appeal  the  majority 
must  rule.  But  true  statesmanship  distrusts  majority  opinion 
in  everything;  seeks  to  escape  its  interference,  and  to  educate 
and  guide  it  in  the  right  direction.  It  yields  to  it  at  last  with 


FALLACY    OF    RULE    OF    MAJORITY    THEORY  369 

reluctance,  and  only  as  we  all  yield  to  any  of  the  overpowering 
forces  of  Nature;  to  darkness,  to  the  deadly  frost  of  the  poles, 
to  torrid  heat,  to  the  desert;  to  each  of  which  we  give  way 
only  to  the  extent  to  which  we  are  unable  to  circumvent  them, 
and  to  prevent  their  interference  with  our  enterprises.  And  so, 
astute  politicians  are  often  active  in  seeking  expedients,  to  com- 
pel the  often  blind  will  of  majorities  to  conform  to  reason  and 
the  inevitable.  It  is  the  ambition  of  real  statesmen  to  drive 
the  state  coach;  while  the  mere  politician  is  content  to  climb 
up  behind,  or  to  run  up  and  down  at  the  heels  of  the  populace, 
like  a  servile  flunkey  after  a  demented  master,  whose  follies 
he  dares  not  correct,  and  out  of  whose  worst  extravagances  he 
is  ready  to  profit.  Political  leaders  realize  that  a  majority 
vote  does  not  always,  perhaps  not  often,  represent  the  weight 
of  the  effective  public  opinion  of  the  state;  that  such  a  vote 
frequently  not  only  lacks  understanding,  but  also  lacks  any 
guarantee  of  future  support  for  the  politician  who  shall  rely 
upon  it.  And  so  it  is  the  part  of  statesmanship  to  mitigate 
or  prevent  pure  majority  rule;  to  manage  public  opinion;  to 
muzzle,  assuage  or  pacify  it;  to  create  and  guide  majorities;  to 
soothe  and  placate  them  for  the  time  being;  and  sometimes  to 
divert  their  attention,  till  they  melt  away  and  disappear  and 
reason  resumes  her  sway. 

The  necessity  of  effectively  curbing,  moderating  and  checking 
majority  action,  was  well  understood  by  the  framers  of  the 
Constitution,  who  erected  various  anti-majority  or  one  might 
say  anti-snap-judgment  barriers.  First,  there  was  the  existing 
property  qualification  for  voters;  Second,  the  fundamental 
guarantees  for  personal  property  rights,  contained  in  the  Con- 
stitution and  intended  to  protect  minorities  against  hasty  ma- 
jority legislation;  Third,  the  immutable  constitutional  pro- 
Vision  for  the  equal  representation  of  the  states  in  the  Senate. 
This  last  is  a  clear  flouting  of  the  majority  theory,  since  it  gives 
a  small  state  the  same  representation  as  a  large  one,  and  con- 
ceivably enables  a  minority  to  defeat  a  majority.  Fourth,  the 
creation  of  an  electoral  college  to  select  the  president;  thus 


370      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

intending  to  deprive  the  people  of  all  direct  voice  in  his  elec- 
tion; Fifth,  the  veto  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  president  not 
elected  by  popular  vote;  Sixth,  the  election  of  federal  senators 
by  the  state  legislatures  instead  of  by  the  people;  Seventh, 
the  creation  of  a  supreme  court  with  power  to  nullify  uncon- 
stitutional legislation;  Eighth,  the  system  of  appointment  in- 
stead of  election  of  all  federal  officials. 

Calhoun  discussed  the  subject  of  majority  vote  in  a  very 
interesting  way  in  his  Disquisition  on  Government.  He 
there  distinguishes  between  the  sense  of  the  majority  of  the 
community  and  the  sense  of  the  entire  community;  he  recog- 
nizes the  tendency  to  misgovernment  by  a  numerical  majority, 
and  the  necessity  of  checking  that  tendency  by  some  means, 
and  he  proposes  the  creation  of  a  countervailing  "Organism"  by 
which  would  be  called  into  operation  the  sense  of  the  com- 
munity as  a  whole.  This  would  merely  amount  to  the  adoption 
of  an  additional  constitutional  check  on  majority  rule ;  and  such 
checks  are  of  course  useful;  but  they  are  insufficient;  they  are 
directed  against  the  operation  of  the  mischief,  but  not  against 
its  root  and  origin.  The  political  machine  should  be  so  con- 
structed that  the  constitutional  checks  on  its  operation  would 
only  be  needed  on  rare  occasions,  like  the  stops  in  an  elevator, 
which  come  into  play  only  in  cases  of  accident  when  the  ma- 
chine gets  beyond  ordinary  control.  A  vital  error  in  the  scheme 
of  majority  rule  is  pointed  out  by  John  Stuart  Mill  in  his 
"System  of  Logic";  it  lies  in  the  vicious  extreme  to  which  it 
has  been  carried.  All  excess  is  mischievous.  All  systems  of 
government  are  bound  to  be  defective  in  results,  and  therefore 
none  should  be  radically  enforced.  The  so  called  French  ex- 
treme logical  application  of  general -rules  tends  to  aggravate 
imperfections.  "In  these,  and  many  other  cases,  we  set  in 
"motion  a  principle  from  which,  while  it  is  under  control  we 
"derive  signal  advantage,  but  which,  if  it  breaks  loose  and 
"follows  its  own  tendencies  unchecked,  is  highly  dangerous:  of 
"which  we  may  say,  as  of  fire,  that  it  is  a  good  servant  but  a 
"bad  master."  (Lewis  on  Authority,  p.  239.)  In  other  words 


FALLACY    OF    RULE    OF    MAJORITY    THEORY  371 

the  doctrine  of  majority  rule  represents  only  one  principle  ap- 
plicable to  government:  it  contains  only  a  part  of  the  truth; 
and  should  not  in  practise  be  applied  to  excess,  or  as  if  it  were 
the  only  principle  involved;  but  its  original  operation  should 
be  combined  at  the  very  outset  with  that  of  other  steadying 
forces  such  as  intelligence,  experience  and  morality.  "The 
"mere  counting  of  votes  (says  one  writer)  is  insufficient  when 
"parts  of  the  nation  are  electing  representatives  for  the  whole. 
"The  parts  must  be  arranged  according  to  quality  so  as  to 
"guarantee  the  election  of  the  best  men,  and  to  give  due  pro- 
"portion  to  the  intellectual,  moral  and  material  elements  of  the 
"nation."  (Bluntschli;  Theory  of  the  State.) 

The  foregoing  may  serve  to  clear  up  the  difficulty  in  the 
minds  of  many  people,  who  have  thought  of  the  construction 
of  a  governmental  machine  as  of  a  problem  in  mathematics, 
where  only  numbers  are  to  be  considered.  As  Mills  the  logician 
points  out,  the  doctrine  of  pure  numerical  majority  rule  is  not 
logical,  and  other  considerations  besides  mere  numbers  must  be 
given  value  in  weighing  the  national  verdict  in  political  ques- 
tions. In  determining  what  those  other  considerations  should 
be,  it  is  obvious  that  property  rights,  and  the  qualities  which 
create  and  preserve  property,  are  of  first  availability  and  impor- 
tance, and  that  the  neglect  and  oversight  of  these  rights  and 
qualities  constitute  the  most  glaring  defects  of  popular  govern- 
ment. The  property  qualification  is  obviously  that  most  readily 
applied  to  the  electorate  and  its  institution  is  a  return  to  the 
natural  and  original  practice  of  the  American  people. 

The  use  of  the  property  qualification  as  a  corrective  of  the 
excesses  attendant  upon  pure  majority  government  is  also 
recommendable  on  the  ground  of  efficiency  and  practicability. 
It  will  effect  a  needed  check  on  hasty,  emotional,  prejudiced 
and  unsocial  measures  more  easily  and  with  less  jar  and  rack- 
ing than  any  of  the  other  expedients  in  practise  or  suggested  for 
that  purpose.  The  marginal  vote  between  right  and  wrong, 
between  wisdom  and  folly,  is  often  very  small;  some- 
times five  or  ten  per  cent.  It  is  safe  to  assume 


372      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

that  a  propertied  electorate  would  give  enlightened  verdicts 
in  many  cases,  where  the  present  inferior  voting  body 
renders  barbarous  ones;  and  such  decisions  would  carry  with 
them  all  the  prestige  of  a  popular  vote.  The  constitutional 
expedients  now  in  force  to  check  majority  action,  or  any  which 
may  be  invented,  should  not  be  subjected  to  every  day  use, 
for  they  have  serious  drawbacks.  They  are  not  preventive; 
they  are  not  final;  at  best  they  effect  no  more  than  delay, 
and  they  irritate  the  masses  by  opposing  a  technical  and  in- 
ferior power  to  theirs;  a  mere  obstruction  as  it  were,  and  that 
interposed  by  those  whom  they  assume  to  call  their  servants. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  logical  and  safe  thing  is  to 
avoid  and  prevent  mistakes  of  the  electorate,  rather  than  to 
allow  them  to  be  made,  and  afterward  to  attempt  by  extraneous 
means  to  offset  them  or  to  thwart  their  operation;  and  this 
especially  when  these  means  are  such  as  to  the  masses  may 
seem  obstructive  and  oppressive.  As  the  real  difficulty  in  the 
case  lies  in  this  vicious  constitution  of  the  electorate,  why  not 
meet  it  there?  The  object  is  to  prevent  foolish,  oppressive  and 
fluctuating  majority  decisions.  To  effectuate  this,  the 
property  qualification  scheme,  while  accepting  the  fact 
that  voting  power  rule  is  one  necessary  factor  in  re- 
publican government,  creates  at  the  outset  a  majority 
body  of  voters  from  which  it  has  eliminated  the  politi- 
cally worthless  element.  It  thus  furnishes  an  electorate  con- 
taining, and  capable  of  producing  out  of  itself,  a  numerical 
majority  which  will  also  carry  a  preponderance  in  property, 
intelligence,  public  spirit  and  in  political  weight,  prestige  and 
power.  Such  a  majority  will  never  attempt  to  rule  in  defiance 
of  justice  and  good  policy;  and  the  assurance  furnished  by 
its  very  existence  will  promote  business  confidence  and  gen- 
eral prosperity. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

OF    EDUCATIONAL    AND    AGE    SUFFRAGE    QUALIFICATIONS 
FOR    VOTERS 

AN  educational  qualification  for  voters  would  be  incom- 
patible with  the  theory  of  this  volume,  which  viewing  govern- 
ment as  preeminently  a  business  institution,  prescribes  as  a 
preparation  for  the  voter  a  practical  business  training,  and 
demands  the  application  to  the  proposed  elector  of  the  test 
of  practical  success  in  business  life  and  of  interest  in  business 
affairs.  But  were  an  educational  qualification  otherwise  de- 
sirable, it  would  have  to  be  rejected  as  totally  impracticable. 
It  might  be  possible  under  certain  circumstances  to  exact  a 
requirement  that  every  voter  should  be  able  to  read  simple 
English  sentences.  But  even  that  would  be  difficult  to  en- 
force; and  if  enforced  would  accomplish  no  more  than  merely 
to  exclude  the  grossly  illiterate;  it  would  not  provide  a  real 
educational  qualification.  Even  to  go  so  far  as  to  require 
an  examination  on  a  few  simple  subjects  would  result  in  a 
merely  nominal  test;  in  practice  absolutely  ineffective,  while 
to  make  it  substantial  would  be  practically  impossible;  no 
machinery  exists  or  could  be  created  for  the  purpose.  The 
present  class  of  election  inspectors  have  neither  the  requisite 
courage  nor  sufficient  knowledge  to  apply  such  requirements; 
they  cannot  themselves  be  expected  to  do  much  more  than  read 
and  write,  and  do  a  plain  sum  in  arithmetic;  the  very  thought 
of  such  officials  applying  a  real  educational  test  to  their 
neighbors,  or  to  anyone  else,  is  ludicrous.  A  board  of  college 
professors  or  men  with  similar  attainments  would  have  to  be 
constituted  in  each  district;  the  expense  would  be  enormous; 
the  examiners  would  be  worked  and  worried  to  the  verge  of 

373 


374      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

insanity;  they  would  have  to  sit  constantly  all  the  year  round; 
with  the  probable  result  after  all  of  riots  at  each  election  and 
ten  years'  litigation  afterwards.  No  two  men  in  the  country 
would  agree  upon  the  subjects  or  rules  for  the  examinations; 
whether  English  grammar  should  be  required,  or  geography, 
or  botany,  or  mensuration,  or  astronomy,  or  geology,  or 
whether  any  of  these  should  be  admissible.  Shall  he  who 
fails  to  spell  "procedure"  or  "acquiesce"  correctly  be  passed 
because  he  remembers  the  name  of  Hamlet's  mother;  or  shall 
the  man  who  says  "droring"  or  he  who  does  not  know  the 
name  of  the  governor  of  the  state,  be  excluded,  or  shall  both 
be  admitted?  Indeed,  any  thorough  examination  would  result 
in  the  disfranchisement  of  nearly  all  middle-aged  men  except 
teachers  and  clergymen.  In  short,  the  idea  of  applying  any 
book  examination  whatever  as  a  test  for  political  capacity  is 
false  and  impracticable,  because  there  is  no  real  relation  be- 
tween capacity  to  remember  the  contents  of  school  books,  and 
that  common  sense  and  good  judgment  which  is  the  founda- 
tion of  all  good  government.  But  there  is  a  practicable  test 
of  both  these  qualities,  though  book  examinations  will  not 
afford  it;  it  is  that  applied  in  daily  life  and  in  business,  and 
is  expressed  in  terms  of  property.  The  possession  or  lack  of 
that  good  judgment  and  of  that  common  sense  is  openly 
certified  every  day  by  the  success  or  failure  of  business  men. 
Their  case  is  like  that  of  students  who  during  the  whole  term 
have  been  competing  for  prizes.  Their  records  and  certificates 
issued  by  the  school  of  life  are  open  to  inspection;  the  ablest 
pupils  have  been  marked,  stamped  as  it  were  for  public  recog- 
nition. No  examination  or  trial  of  any  sort  would  furnish 
tests  as  valuable  and  accurate  as  those  applied  to  every  man 
day  by  day  in  the  struggle  of  life. 

There  is  no  fear  that  any  well-educated  but  unpropertied 
man  will  suffer  injustice  through  being  excluded  from  the 
polls.  As  it  is  to-day,  all  educated  men  who  are  not  in  active 
politics  find  the  right  to  vote  to  be  a  hollow  privilege  to  per- 
form an  empty  ceremony;  they  learn  that  its  value  is  nullified 


EDUCATIONAL   AND  AGE   SUFFRAGE   QUALIFICATIONS      375 

by  the  worthless  men  and  frivolous  women  of  the  neighbor- 
hood, and  by  the  sordid  political  organizations  created  by 
universal  suffrage.  No  patriotic  man  desires  the  vote  merely 
for  his  own  gratification,  or  except  for  the  general  good;  and 
how  can  it  be  for  the  public  gain  to  let  down  the  bars  in  his 
case,  if  a  score  of  incapables  thereby  get  through  the  fence 
and  offset  and  defeat  his  vote  twenty  times  over?  It  is  prob- 
able that  fifty  undesirables  will  be  excluded  from  the  polls  by 
a  property  qualification  for  every  man  of  worth  kept  away 
because  of  his  poverty;  and  the  latter  will  be  consoled  and 
recompensed  by  seeing  his  class  at  last  obtain  an  influence  and 
a  hearing.  And,  after  all,  the  value  to  the  state  of  the  political 
judgment  and  opinion  of  such  few  electors  as  are  able  to  pass 
an  educational  examination,  and  yet  are  not  possessed  of  the 
equivalent  of  a  reasonable  property  qualification,  cannot  be 
very  great;  probably  all  put  together  it  is  less  than  nothing. 
A  man  with  all  the  advantage  of  a  good  education  who  is  un- 
able in  this  country  to  save  enough  money  to  put  him  on  the 
roll  of  the  thrifty,  is  presumably  incompetent  to  advise  the 
commonwealth;  and  it  is  perhaps  one  of  the  advantages  of 
a  property  qualification  that  it  saves  the  state  from  the  ill 
counsel  of  his  class. 

The  complete  failure  of  mere  school  and  college  education 
to  fit  man  for  civic  duties  is  recognized  by  the  heads  of  our 
educational  system,  as  well  as  by  business  men.  In  an  ad- 
dress delivered  at  New  Haven  September  28,  1919,  President 
Hadley  of  Yale  University  laid  proper  emphasis  on  this  point, 
and  on  the  risks  attending  undisciplined  democracy.  He  said 
in  substance  that  there  is  danger  that  our  free  institutions  may 
break  down  for  want  of  capacity  in  the  voters,  and  admitted 
that  the  schools  and  colleges  had  proved  incapable  of  creating 
a  competent  electorate.  The'  "vision"  which  Hadley  found 
lacking  in  the  voters  of  today  as  contrasted  with  the  Fathers, 
is  the  insight  into  life  which  a  man  may  get  in  caring  for 
property  or  in  successfully  fending  for  himself  and  family. 

Besides  the  men  of  books  without  practical  vision  or  judg- 


376      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

ment  there  is  another  type  whose  hands  should  be  kept  off  the 
wheels  of  government;  namely,  those  who  have  sufficient  edu- 
cation and  fluency  of  speech  to  give  them  sway  over  the  foolish 
and  dissatisfied  masses,  but  who  are  themselves  weak  in  prin- 
ciple and  devoid  of  knowledge  of  political  economy.  As  long 
as  such  a  one  enjoys  a  fortune  he  is  comparatively  safe; 
but  let  him  be  penniless  and  he  is  apt  to  become  a  dangerous 
agitator.  The  state  is  safest  without  such  men  in  any  part 
of  its  organization.  A  purely  educational  qualification  system 
would  give  high  place  to  the  featherhead  revolutionary  agi- 
tators of  Russia  and  France,  Nihilists,  Anarchists,  Bolsheviki, 
Terrorists,  political  scoundrels  and  madmen.  It  must  be 
steadily  borne  in  mind  that  our  civilization  is  founded  on 
private  property,  and  that  the  rights  of  private  property  can- 
not be  safely  disregarded  by  the  makers  of  the  modern  demo- 
cratic state  but  must  be  always  held  paramount  if  our 
fundamental  institutions  are  to  endure. 

The  qualification  age  of  voters  should  be  advanced  from 
twenty  one  to  twenty  five  years.  The  age  of  twenty  one  has 
by  common  consent  of  most  civilized  people  been  selected  as 
that  at  which  the  tutelage  of  a  youth  shall  cease,  and  he  shall 
become  a  free  man  with  the  right  to  regulate  his  own  life  and 
dispose  of  his  own  property.  In  point  of  fact  this  theory 
substantially  accords  with  the  truth  in  the  majority  of  cases; 
the  average  boy  ends  his  schooling  at  about  seventeen  years 
of  age,  and  after  four  years  spent  at  college  or  in  learning 
the  rudiments  of  some  business,  trade  or  calling  his  period 
of  training  for  manhood  is  usually  ended.  And  so,  on  the 
theory  that  suffrage  is  a  natural  right  of  a  man  it  might  well 
be  said  that  the  vote  should  be  given  on  attaining  manhood; 
but  starting  with  the  correct  theory  that  suffrage  is  a  function 
of  government,  for  which  the  school  of  life  is  a  preparation, 
it  is  clear  that  a  proper  additional  period  must  be  granted  for 
that  preparation.  Ordinarily,  the  four  years  from  the  age  of 
twenty-one  to  that  of  twenty-five,  represent  the  period  of  the 
youth's  first  experience  in  making  his  own  living,  in  managing 


EDUCATIONAL   AND  AGE   SUFFRAGE   QUALIFICATIONS      377 

his  own  property,  in  planning  and  selecting  his  own  career  and 
associates,  in  making  and  executing  his  own  decisions,  and 
generally  in  the  actual  exercise  of  free  and  uncontrolled  man- 
hood. There  can  be  no  doubt  that  these  four  years  thus  spent 
have  a  great  effect  on  a  young  man's  character;  and  that  or- 
dinarily he  who  was  but  a  youth  at  twenty-one  is  found  at 
twenty-five  to  be  a  man,  with  a  stock  of  manly  ideas  and 
experience  all  acquired  in  the  last  four  years.  Four  years 
apprenticeship  to  actual  life  is  none  too  long  a  preparation  for 
political  duties,  and  the  necessity  of  this  requirement  will  no 
doubt  be  acknowledged  by  most  young  men  over  twenty-five 
years  of  age.  In  the  case  of  those  who  have  inherited  prop- 
erty, it  is  plain  that  a  four  years'  acquaintance  with  its  man- 
agement, and  of  actual  contact  with  the  taxing  power,  will 
give  to  their  votes  a  weight  and  value  which  are  usually  quite 
lacking  to  those  of  the  ordinary  youth  of  twenty-one  years. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

WOMAN    SUFFRAGE    IN    THEORY 

Let  the  woman  learn  in  silence  with  all  subjection,  but  I  suffer 
not  a  woman  to  teach,  nor  to  usurp  authority  over  the 
man,  but  to  be  in  silence.  (I  Timothy,  ii;  13,  14.) 

THERE  be  those  to  whom  the  words  of  the  great  apostle  to 
the  Gentiles  speak  with  power  and  authority;  who  believe  that 
Holy  Writ  will  be  read  and  heard  with  reverent  faith  long  after 
the  claptrap  of  to-day  has  been  replaced  by  a  later  folly  and 
is  utterly  forgotten;  and  there  be  those  also  who  disdain  St.  Paul 
as  one  far  inferior  in  deep  sagacity  to  themselves.  The  pre- 
cept of  the  ancient  text  will  no  doubt  be  valued  by  each  reader 
as  belikes  him.  The  beauty  of  the  landscape  is  in  the  eye  of 
the  human  spectator;  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  neither 
the  grazing  donkey  nor  any  of  his  fellow  quadrupeds  has  yet 
felt  its  fascination. 

Woman  suffrage  has  been  steadily  gaining  ground  in  the 
United  States  for  the  last  ten  years,  and  the  leading  politicians 
have  recently  taken  it  up.  It  is  a  corollary  and  a  sequence  of 
manhood  suffrage,  its  most  fatal  and  noxious  derivative.  It  is 
distinctly  Bolshevik  in  its  tendencies;  it  represents  an  absolute 
negation  of  the  rights  of  property  and  the  claims  of  capacity  in 
government,  and  it  threatens  the  severest  blow  which  democ- 
racy has  ever  yet  sustained.  It  implies  the  past  failure  of 
democracy  as  a  governing  power  and  is  destined  if  accepted,  to 
confirm  and  complete  that  failure  in  the  future.  Its 
adoption  by  a  number  of  states  of  the  Union  is  a 
disgrace  and  a  dishonour,  because  it  implies  that 
the  men  of  the  nation  are  unfit  to  govern  it.  The 
implication  is  necessary  and  conclusive,  but  the  charge  does 
not  rest  on  mere  implication;  the  suffragettes  have  repeatedly 

378 


WOMAN   SUFFRAGE   IN   THEORY  379 

^*— m  an(j  in  their  literature.    Yes,  to  such 
generations  of  its  odious  operations, 
3ught  our  people,  that  our  women 
our  men  of  incapacity  to  govern  the 
ig  woman  suffrage  in  sixteen  states 
he  charge;  for  if  they  were  compe- 
re even  as  competent  as  the  women, 
tiling  in  the  latter  to  interfere.    They 
the  male  electorate  thereby  stands  a 
ad  yet  the  charge  of  incapacity  made 
;  they  are  competent  to  manage  the 
ell,  but  the  politicians  who  have  been 
lelm  of  state  are  not  competent;  and 
nd  forty  years  of  independence  and 
told  by  a  parcel  of  fools  and  fanatics 
.e  country  is  not  and  never  has  been 
:s  affairs.    Disguise  it  as  you  will,  that 
means.    It  is  not  merely  an  open  af- 
ihood,  but  it  is  also  an  aspersion  at 
aid  its  intelligence;  for  it  is  a  declara- 
;entury  of  actual  participation  in  busi- 
s  and  in  government,  our  men  are  so 
)men  who  have  none  of  this  experience, 
are  more  w~r— .        lan  they  to  counsel  and  direct  in  all 
these  important  matters.    In  vain  will  the  nincompoops  and 
sentimentalists  who  gave  us  women  suffrage  attempt  to  avoid 
this  plain  conclusion  by  references  to  a  few  superior  and  ex- 
ceptional women,  such  as  their  favorite  wonder,  Mme.  Curie. 
The  invitation  to  vote  was  not  confined  to  the  exceptional;  we 
have  called  in  the  whole  adult  female  population,  black  and 
white,  from  the  most  intelligent  and  refined  lady  in  the  land 
down  to  the  vilest  negress  from  the  slums.    The  obvious  effect 
was  and  is  to  offset  every  man's  vote  by  a  woman's  vote;  and 
thus  practically  to  disfranchise  the  men  of  the  country.    The 
votes  of  the  banker,  the  lawyer,  the  physician,  the  business 
man,  the  farmer,  the  manufacturer,  the  architect,  each  of 


380      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

whom  has  spent  most  of  his  days  in  learning  lessons  in  the 
actual  struggles  of  life,  are  to  be  negatived  by  the  votes  of 
their  wives  and  daughters,  who  have  passed  their  existence  in 
sheltered  homes,  and  who  are  so  ignorant  of  the  business  of 
life  and  politics,  that  they  do  not  even  know  its  terms  or  its 
language.  In  every  family,  in  every  occupation,  in  every 
quality  and  grade  of  life,  the  same  absurd  and  degrading  per- 
formance is  to  be  repeated  year  by  year,  as  long  as  men  will 
subject  themselves  to  the  futile  humiliation  of  appearing  at 
the  polls.  All  the  way  up  and  down  the  scale  our  women 
are  notoriously  inferior  to  our  men  in  business  and  political 
knowledge  and  judgment;  and  all  the  way  down  and  all  the 
way  up,  all  the  votes  of  such  of  the  wise  and  experienced  males 
as  may  hereafter  trouble  themselves  to  vote  are  to  be  nega- 
tived and  nullified  by  those  of  the  ignorant  and  inexperienced 
females.  To  say  that  no  such  result  is  intended  is  to  say  that 
the  promoters  of  woman  suffrage  acted  without  reason  or  logic, 
which  is  probably  true.  They  did  not  realize  the  meaning  or 
effect  of  a  great  deal  of  what  they  said  and  proposed;  but  yet, 
whether  or  not  they  are  capable  of  understanding  it,  woman 
suffrage  must,  if  it  does  anything,  modify  or  lessen  man's 
authority.  Some  of  the  suffragette  leaders  saw  this,  and  the 
literature  of  the  movement  is  well  peppered  with  sharp  asper- 
sions on  the  capacity  of  men  to  rule  the  country.  Indeed,  if 
male  government  was  satisfactory,  why  was  a  change  proposed? 
The  entire  argument  of  the  movement  was  that  masculine  rule 
is  not  satisfactory,  and  that  therefore  it  was  proposed  to  super- 
sede and  supplant  it  by  a  mixed  government  of  men  and 
women,  now  and  forever.  This  change  in  management  is  in- 
excusable, unless  it  is  intended  to  produce  practical  results  in 
legislation  and  administration;  and  each  of  these  practical 
results  cannot  be  or  mean  less  than  an  overruling  of  the  male 
power  by  the  female  power,  and  a  public  and  formal  assertion 
of  superior  female  capacity  in  government. 

To  say  that  none  of  this  is  to  happen,  that  after  all  this 
hullabaloo  about  woman's  wrongs  and  rights,  the  women  are 


WOMAN   SUFFRAGE   IN   THEORY  381 

going  to  vote  in  obedience  to  the  directions  or  wishes  of  the 
men  of  their  respective  families,  and  that  man's  government 
control  and  management  will  therefore  remain  unaffected  by 
the  triumph  of  their  cause,  is  to  make  the  whole  movement 
futile  and  ridiculous.  Not  only  that;  but  such  a  nullification 
of  the  women's  vote  would  add  to  the  mischief  of  the  affront 
already  put  upon  the  men  by  putting  a  separate  affront  upon 
the  women.  Far  better  for  them  to  stay  at  home,  and  make 
no  pretence  of  political  action,  than  to  go  out  to  the  polls,  and 
pretend  to  do  the  part  of  freewomen,  while  really  acting  the 
part  of  puppets.  If  therefore  a  practise  of  proxy  voting  is  to 
be  the  real  effect  of  woman  suffrage,  and  there  is  good  reason 
to  suspect  that  it  is  so  in  many  instances,  let  it  be  done  openly 
and  straightforwardly.  There  is  already  too  much  fraud  and 
humbug  in  politics;  let  the  law  be  amended  so  that  for  in- 
stance, when  a  manufacturer  with  a  wife  and  four  other 
women  in  his  family  puts  in  six  votes  for  a  protective  tariff 
it  can  be  done  openly;  let  him  cast  the  six  votes  himself,  with- 
out resorting  to  the  troublesome  expedient  of  having  these 
five  women,  much  against  their  will,  trained  and  required  to 
take  a  mean  part  in  a  sham  transaction;  first  carefully  in- 
structed to  vote  the  straight  ticket  and  then  taken  to  the  polls 
and  compelled  to  go  through  the  tiresome  form  required  by 
the  man-made  election  law.  Indeed,  if  men  were  permitted 
to  vote  by  proxy  for  their  women,  the  probability  is  that 
female  attendance  at  the  polls  would  before  long  become  un- 
fashionable and  shrink  almost  to  nothing.  If,  however,  the 
female  voters,  inspired  by  the  suffragette  dreams,  change  their 
natures  so  far  as  to  want  to  use  their  new  powers  in  complete 
independence  of  the  men,  then  will  be  seen  the  interesting  pic- 
ture of  our  women,  publicly  exercising  their  ignorance,  and 
in  defiance  of  all  claims  of  loyalty  and  gratitude,  trampling 
under  foot  family  ties,  assuming  hostile  attitudes  towards  the 
men,  and  negativing  the  votes  of  fathers,  brothers  and  hus- 
bands whose  bread  they  eat,  who  protect  and  care  for  them 
and  whose  business  and  political  experience  and  wisdom  is 


382      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN    THE   UNITED   STATES 

ten  times  their  own.  Imagine  the  theory  of  woman  suffrage 
plainly  and  fully  in  effect,  and  see  what  it  would  mean.  Pic- 
ture, if  you  will,  the  assembled  men  of  a  hamlet  or  village 
voting  "yea"  on  any  proposition;  say  to  build  a  school  house 
or  a  sewer;  to  pass  an  ordinance,  to  favor  war  or  peace,  or 
to  select  a  public  official;  and  imagine  the  women  in  like 
separate  assembly  overruling  the  word  of  their  men  and  voting 
"nay."  Would  not  this  be  to  affront  and  dishonour  the  men 
of  the  community;  and  is  there  any  doubt  as  to  which  body 
would  be  in  the  right  in  whatever  decision  had  been  made? 
Yet  that  or  nothing,  is  the  effect  of  this  measure.  Of  the 
woman  who  favors  woman  suffrage  it  can  therefore  be  said 
that  she  wishes  to  see  the  dearest  opinions  of  her  experienced 
father,  her  brother  and  her  husband  overruled  not  only  by 
herself  but  by  every  gossiping  wench  in  the  neighborhood. 
Truly  a  noble  movement!  For  the  men  who  have  acceded  to 
it  the  most  charitable  excuse  is  indifference.  The  long  con- 
tinued operation  of  rotten  politics  has  eaten  into  the  civic  fibre 
of  our  manhood;  we  have  for  generations  seen  elections  turned 
into  farces,  public  offices  bargained  and  sold,  and  a  vulgar 
oligarchy  of  rogues  native  and  imported  ruling  this  land,  till 
our  best  men  have  almost  ceased  to  care  who  votes  or  who 
is  elected.  If  the  male  "suffragist"  doubts  this  to  be  his  real 
mental  attitude,  let  him  imagine  the  women  of  his  family  over- 
ruling him  in  a  business  transaction,  or  one  of  personal  friend- 
ship, or  any  other  matter  in  which  he  is  really  concerned,  and 
wherein  he  is  better  informed  than  they;  and  he  will  realize, 
that  his  willingness  to  submit  to  having  the  exercise  of  his 
citizenship  nullified  at  the  polls,  by  the  vote  of  an  un- 
instructed  woman  is  due  to  his  contempt  for  politics,  his  in- 
difference to  political  results,  and  his  realization  that  the 
suffrage  has  been  already -degraded  so  that  it  is  practically 
worthless. 

Not  only  is  woman  suffrage  a  dishonor  and  a  disgrace,  but 
it  is  a  danger,  for  it  threatens  the  existence  of  the  state;  it 
is  a  weakening  of  the  foundations  at  a  time  when  we  are 


WOMAN   SUFFRAGE   IN   THEORY  383 

menaced  with  attacks  by  every  band  of  the  rapidly  organizing 
enemies  to  property  and  to  the  social  order.  Is  it  fit  when  the 
day  of  stress  comes  that  the  power  of  this  country  should  be 
in  the  hands  of  women  and  woman-led  politicians?  If  we  will 
not  take  counsel  of  common  sense,  let  us  be  warned  of  our 
fears,  to  step  backward  while  there  is  time,  for  the  precipice 
is  directly  in  our  path. 

The  progress  of  the  cause  of  woman  suffrage,  like  to  that 
of  manhood  suffrage  a  century  ago,  is  due  to  the  apathy  of 
half  the  population  and  the  failure  of  the  other  half  to  under- 
stand the  question.  And  just  as  manhood  suffrage  was 
adopted  without  serious  discussion  or  any  real  study  of  its 
tendencies,  so  woman  suffrage  is  rapidly  making  its  way  in  a 
careless,  stupid  and  bewildered  electorate,  of  which  a  large 
portion  and  that  the  most  intelligent  has  long  ago  abandoned 
politics  as  hopeless  and  disgusting.  No  doubt,  the  adoption 
of  the  manhood  suffrage  theory  prepared  the  way  for  this  re- 
sult, first  by  promulgating  the  false  doctrine  of  a  natural  right 
to  vote,  and  second  by  weakening  the  electorate.  When  the 
principle  of  a  qualified  electorate  was  abandoned,  we  lost  the 
only  sane  and  safe  basis  on  which  a  democratic  government 
can  possibly  exist;  once  reject  the  rule  of  fitness,  and  there 
is  no  valid  reason  why  all  the  deficient  and  worthless  should 
not  have  their  say  in  government,  and  the  way  is  laid  open 
for  rule  by  ignorant  and  incapable  numbers  instead  of  by 
knowledge  and  capacity.  The  admission  of  women  to  the 
voting  booths  is  merely  a  new  and  wider  application  of  the 
former  doctrine  of  the  right  of  the  ignorant  and  unfit  to  govern. 
Let  it  be  conceded  that  no  voter  can  be  excluded  from  the 
polls  for  incapacity  shown  by  failure  in  life,  and  it  becomes 
difficult  to  exclude  for  similar  incapacity  resulting  from  sex. 
The  abolition  of  all  qualifications  for  male  voters,  and  the 
admission  of  a  horde  of  male  incompetents  to  the  ballot  box, 
has  prepared  the  way  for  the  granting  of  the  privileges  of  the 
ballot  to  a  sex  almost  universally  incompetent  for  the  exercise 
of  the  franchise. 


384      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

And  further,  manhood  suffrage  not  only  smoothed  the  path 
for  woman  suffrage  by  weakening  and  degrading  the  electorate 
who  were  to  pass  on  the  question,  but  incidentally  by  driving 
out  in  disgust  great  numbers  of  the  wise  and  worthy  from 
active  participation  in  politics;  with  the  result  that  the  body 
politic  has  hardly,  if  at  all,  power  or  virtue  sufficient  to  save 
itself  from  the  assaults  of  that  clamorous  band  of  female 
fanatics  and  triflers  who  seek  diversion  in  public  affairs.  The 
adoption  of  woman  suffrage  at  the  command  of  this  noxious 
horde  is  the  most  degraded  performance  of  and  the  most  mis- 
chievous transgression  by  the  manhood  suffrage  system  since 
its  establishment. 

The  ruling  politicians  of  both  parties,  who  were  at  first 
afraid  of  woman  suffrage,  and  next  doubtful  or  lukewarm,  have 
now  generally  come  to  favor  it,  and  are  quite  ready  to  wel- 
come an  influx  of  new  voters  still  more  ignorant  and  emotional 
than  those  they  had  already  learned  to  master.  They  might, 
of  course,  have  defeated  the  movement;  but  they  had  no  mo- 
tive to  exclude  from  the  polls  masses  of  women,  mostly  ig- 
norant and  gullible,  and  often  sordid,  who  with  a  little  change 
in  methods,  may  be  purchased,  deceived  and  controlled,  even 
more  easily  than  the  nondescript  men  who  have  heretofore 
constituted  the  sure  following  of  the  bosses.  Besides,  the 
politicians  cannot  safely  or  consistently  advocate  or  counte- 
nance the  establishment  of  any  qualification  whatever  for  the 
exercise  of  political  functions;  the  leaders  and  their  instru- 
ments being  notoriously  unfit  for  the  offices  and  their  followers 
for  the  voting  booths. 

That  the  great  state  of  New  York  should  be  one  of  those  to 
grant  full  suffrage  to  women  strikingly  illustrates  and  proves 
the  incapacity  of  the  manhood  suffrage  electorate.  The  state's 
vote  in  that  behalf  could  only  have  been  given  by  a  constit- 
uency grossly  stupid,  or  so  neglectful  of  its  duties  as  to  be 
indifferent  to  the  grotesque  scandals  already  produced  in  New 
York  by  the  operation  of  manhood  suffrage.  And  now,  its 
voting  mass,  which  already  was  far  inferior  in  intelligence  and 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  IN  THEORY  385 

efficiency  to  what  it  should  be,  has  by  its  own  decree  provided 
that  hereafter  it  will  be  still  more  ignorant  and  inefficient.  The 
fact  is,  that  the  whole  American  electorate,  especially  in  states 
containing  great  and  absolutely  machine  ruled  cities,  has  be- 
come demoralized  by  manhood  suffrage  to  the  extent  that  it  has 
ceased  to  study  the  philosophy  of  government  and  finds  itself 
totally  unprepared  to  discuss  the  suffrage  question  intelligently. 
A  few  cheap  catch  words  such  as  the  "majority  must  rule" 
and  "every  citizen  should  vote"  constitute  nowadays  the 
political  creed  and  sum  up  the  political  knowledge  of  the  ordi- 
nary American.  The  women  suffragists  utter  mere  claptrap; 
but  claptrap  perfectly  suits  the  popular  ear,  and  is  all  that 
any  one  has  needed  to  utter  on  political  platforms  ever  since 
manhood  suffrage  was  adopted;  they  press  upon  the  voters 
their  superficial  argument  that  as  no  qualification  was  required 
from  a  man,  none  should  be  required  of  a  woman;  they  con- 
trast the  good  respectable  women  who  are  refused  the  suffrage 
with  the  miserable  male  sots,  loafers  and  ignorant  boors  to 
whom  it  has  been  granted ;  and  they  urge  that  nothing  can  be 
worse  than  our  present  political  condition.  In  this,  by  the  way, 
they  will  find  their  mistake  as  time  goes  on;  for  Uncle  Sam, 
like  the  man  who  is  made  shaky  on  his  legs  by  two  glasses  of 
whiskey,  will  not  be  steadied  by  doubling  the  dose  that  dis- 
abled him.  However,  in  these  and  similar  arguments,  there 
appears  to  the  superficial  mind  so  much  plausibility  that  on 
the  strength  of  them,  millions  of  women  have  been  put  on  the 
voting  lists;  most  of  them  absolutely  ignorant  of  business  life 
and  of  the  practical  workings  of  political  institutions  built  up 
by  men  year  by  year  in  the  centuries  gone  by;  most  of  them 
besides  almost  totally  devoid  of  any  realization  of  the  tragedy 
of  the  situation,  of  the  tremendous  interests  involved,  or  of 
the  dangers  to  which  a  nation  is  subject,  which  goes  drifting 
along  without  firm,  strict  and  competent  masculine  govern- 
mental management  and  control. 

Let  it  be  clearly  understood  before  proceeding  further,  that 
it  is  not  within  the  scope  or  plan  of  this  book  to  discuss  what  is 


386      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

called  "feminism,"  or  even  to  go  into  the  whole  case  against 
woman  suffrage,  but  merely  to  apply  to  the  female  suffrage 
problem,  the  reasoning  herein  applied  to  the  manhood  suffrage 
institution.  The  inquiry  here  is  merely  whether  or  not  women 
may  be  expected  by  their  votes  to  contribute  to  the  public 
welfare.  It  will  be  well,  however,  just  to  mention  the  principal 
points  made  by  those  opposed  to  giving  the  franchise  to  woman, 
which  are  additional  to  those  included  in  the  argument  herein 
presented,  so  as  to  make  it  clear  that  the  failure  of  the  writer 
to  urge  them  hi  detail  must  not  be  taken  to  indicate  any  disre- 
gard of  their  value;  they  are  not  dwelt  upon  only  because  out- 
side of  the  scheme  of  the  work.  These  miscellaneous  points 
made  by  the  anti-female  suffragists  are  as  follows: 

That  the  ultimate  sanction  for  every  political  decree  is  force ; 
modern  force  is  expressed  in  naval  and  military  terms;  women 
are  incapable  of  military  or  naval  service,  they  cannot  back 
their  votes  by  force.  To  say  that  because  they  can  nurse 
the  wounded  they  are  therefore  combatants  is  like  saying  that 
the  man  who  blows  the  organ  is  a  musician.  We  have  also  the 
objections  founded  on  mental  or  moral  deficiency;  that 
government  needs  creative  energy,  and  that  women  are  not 
as  creative  as  men,  no  supreme  work  of  genius  for  instance 
having  ever  been  created  by  a  woman;  that  woman  is  inferior 
to  man  in  strength  of  intellect,  in  power  of  concentration  and 
moral  perception;  that  she  has  no  larger  view  than  man  on  any 
subject,  but  on  many  subjects  a  much  narrower  view;  that 
women  are  more  subject  than  men  to  passion  and  prejudice; 
that  they  have  less  public  or  civic  virtue,  and  that  in  order  to 
overcome  their  inferiority  in  these  particulars  they  would  have 
to  pass  through  all  the  developing  experience  of  men  in  all  the 
past  centuries.  Another:  that  women  are  usually  dependents, 
whereas  no  voter  should  be  a  dependent.  Also,  that  the  State 
does  not  need  women  except  to  raise  children;  all  other  ser- 
vices, such  as  agriculture,  manufacturing,  transportation,  mili- 
tary and  naval  duties,  construction,  shipping,  engineering, 
finance,  literature,  science,  invention,  etc.,  being  better  per- 


WOMAN   SUFFRAGE   IN   THEORY  387 

formed  by  men.  There  are  also  biological  considerations  of  great 
force  operating  generally  against  the  feminist  theory  of  the 
natural  equality  of  the  sexes;  and  which  though  not  sufficient 
to  forbid  woman's  casting  a  vote,  are  effective  reasons  against 
her  going  into  political  strifes  and  contests.  There  are,  for 
instance,  the  physical  weaknesses  incidental  to  their  sex,  the 
importance  of  maternity  and  of  all  the  functions  appertaining 
thereto;  the  need  in  the  interests  of  humanity  of  guarding  the 
mothers  of  the  race  present  and  future  from  all  undue  physical 
strain  and  burden;  tfre  danger  as  a  result  of  feminism  of  the 
evolution  of  a  type  of  woman  expressing  masculine  character- 
istics, and  incapable  of  arousing  the  passion  of  love,  thus  de- 
priving men  of  the  beauty  and  charm  of  women,  imperiling 
the  comeliness  of  the  race,  abolishing  the  lady  and  ladyhood, 
and  drying  up  the  source  of  poetry;  then  there  is  the  argument 
that  the  biological  development  and  evolution  of  woman,  and  of 
the  race,  is  destined  to  come  by  means  of  the  growth  of  greater 
and  greater  differences  between  the  sexes,  and  not  by  women 
copying  men;  that  feminism  in  all  its  aspects  is  hostile  to  mar- 
riage; that  the  years  necessary  to  feminist  training  would 
bring  women  to  an  age  too  advanced  for  the  best  marriages; 
that  women  and  men  are  not  equals,  there  being  no  equality  in 
nature;  and  that  women  need  the  maintenance  and  protection 
of  the  male  for  their  best  advantage  and  that  of  their  children, 
whereas  the  tendency  of  the  woman  suffrage  movement  and  of 
all  feminism  is  clearly  towards  separation  of  the  sexes  and 
female  economic  independence. 

Having  thus  merely  mentioned  these  points  which  have  been 
often  presented  and  discussed  by  other  writers,  we  may  pro- 
ceed to  apply  to  the  question  of  woman  suffrage  the  same  test 
already  applied  to  manhood  suffrage,  by  propounding  the 
query  whether  it  is  for  the  benefit  of  the  state?  And  here  we 
find  that  every  objection  already  urged  in  this  volume  to  giving 
the  vote  to  unpropertied  men,  applies  with  increased  force  to 
giving  it  to  women  of  all  classes.  As  there  is  no  natural  right 
in  man  to  the  vote,  so  there  can  be  none  in  woman;  and  in 


388      POPULAR    MISGOVERNMENT    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

the  light  of  reason,  woman  suffrage  stands  condemned  on 
every  ground  urged  in  this  book  for  the  condemnation  of  man- 
hood suffrage.  In  whatever  respects  manhood  suffrage  has  in 
this  book  been  condemned  as  injurious,  woman  suffrage  is  more 
injurious.  In  short,  the  theory  upon  which  woman  suffrage 
is  advocated  by  its  supporters  is  entirely  incompatible  with  the 
theory  of  suffrage  advanced  by  the  writer,  and  indeed  with 
any  theory  on  which  a  property  qualification  can  be  imposed 
upon  voters.  In  dealing  with  this  subject  therefore,  instead 
of  treading  again  ground  already  gone  over,  the  writer  prefers 
to  call  attention  briefly  to  the  doctrines  of  the  woman  suffrage 
creed  already  dealt  with  and  confuted  by  him  in  his  discussion 
of  manhood  suffrage,  as  follows: 

Woman  suffragists  adopt  the  manhood  suffrage  theory  of 
a  natural  right  to  vote,  and  seek  to  widen  its  application;  the 
writer  and  those  who  agree  with  him  condemn  that  theory,  and 
seek  to  narrow  its  operation.  They  insist  that  political  voting 
is  a  natural  right;  we,  that  it  is  a  public  function.  They 
regard  the  vote  as  cast  for  the  benefit  of  the  voter;  we  insist 
that  it  be  given  solely  for  the  benefit  of  the  state.  They 
affirm  that  the  present  suffrage  is  not  wide  enough;  we  say 
that  it  is  too  wide.  They  seek  a  remedy  for  misgovernment  by 
going  further  in  our  present  course;  we  propose  to  retrace 
our  steps.  They  demand  that  all  adults  be  invited  to  partici- 
pate in  government;  we  insist  that  all  but  the  well  qualified 
should  be  excluded.  They  say  that  the  adult  population  in 
the  mass  is  competent  to  pass  upon  candidates  and  policies; 
we  say  it  is  not;  that  a  much  more  competent  and  honest 
body  for  the  purpose  is  furnished  by  the  successful  men  of 
business,  evolved  by  the  process  of  natural  selection.  They 
seek  political  counsel  of  everyone;  including  the  weak,  the  in- 
experienced and  unreliable;  we  reject  all  but  that  of  the  strong, 
experienced  and  trustworthy.  They  consider  the  polling  booth 
as  a  preparatory  school  for  triflers,  fools  and  the  ignorant;  we 
regard  it  as  a  seat  of  judgment  from  which  those  three  classes 
should  be  strictly  excluded,  They  speak  of  "liberty"  and  "self 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  IN  THEORY  389 

government"  as  ideal  products  of  universal  suffrage;  we  say 
in  the  first  place  that  "liberty"  and  "self  government"  are 
impossible  in  a  civilized  country;  and  second,  that  instead  of 
"self  government"  manhood  suffrage  has  produced  and  can 
only  produce  machine  and  ring  government;  and  that  the  votes 
of  women  given  under  universal  suffrage  will  and  must 
strengthen  these  rings  and  machines. 

Summarized  in  the  fewest  possible  words,  the  gist  of  the 
previous  chapters,  as  far  as  they  affect  both  sexes,  women  as 
well  as  men,  is,  that  voting  is  not  a  natural  right  but  a  public 
function,  to  be  exercised  solely  for  the  benefit  of  the  state; 
and  that  the  suffrage  should  be  entrusted  only  to  those  who 
have  shown  themselves  to  be  duly  qualified,  and  never  to  the 
weak,  inexperienced  or  dependent.  These  simple  propositions, 
accepted  or  considered  established,  the  question  of  granting 
or  refusing  the  vote  to  women  is  much  simplified,  being  nar- 
rowed to  one  of  political  expediency,  dependent  upon  their 
proven  capacity  to  function  as  voters. 

It  is  manifestly  not  a  question  of  the  capacity  of  some, 
but  of  all  women,  for  unless  the  quality  of  the  entire  female 
electorate  is  politically  superior  to  that  of  the  entire  male 
electorate  the  former  should  not  be  introduced  into  our  po- 
litical system.  Nor  is  it  a  matter  of  comparison  of  any  other 
than  civic  or  political  quality;  it  is  immaterial  whether  women 
are  morally  superior  to  men,  or  better  church  goers  or  more 
sentimental;  the  question  is  whether  they  are  politically  as 
capable;  that  is  whether  they  are  as  capable  of  selecting  the 
directors  of  the  state,  or  of  directing  her  themselves,  and  of 
shaping  her  policies  as  the  men  are.  But  of  the  answer  to 
this  there  can  be  no  possible  uncertainty;  no  one  doubts  male 
superiority  in  these  capacities;  to  deny  it  in  the  face  of  the 
well-known  characteristics  of  the  human  male,  as  well  as  the 
notorious  advantages  that  men  have  over  women  in  point  of 
business  and  political  training  and  experience,  is  to  defy  com- 
mon sense.  Government  is  an  institution  established  for  a 
kind  of  work  which  is  essentially  masculine.  It  is  designed 


3QO      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

not  only  for  the  prosecution  of  great  business  enterprises  in 
peace,  but  of  foreign  wars  great  and  small,  for  national  de- 
fense, and  for  that  diplomacy  which  is  armed  and  threaten- 
ing. Political  capacity  requires  mental  power,  courage,  firm- 
ness of  character,  determination,  physical  strength,  military 
capability ,  business  training  and  experience  and  ability  to 
rule.  These  are  essentially  maculine  qualities;  and  while  few 
men  have  them  all  highly  developed,  yet  those  attributes  or 
some  of  them  are  moderately  present  in  most  men  and  to  a 
considerable  extent  in  some  men  in  every  community;  whereas 
most  women  are  almost  or  quite  destitute  of  all  of  them. 
Sensible  women  fully  recognize  their  difference  from  men  in 
respect  to  those  qualities,  and  for  that  reason  they  especially 
value  them,  and  seek  for  them  in  selecting  their  husbands, 
lovers,  lawyers  and  physicians.  It  is  apparently  conceded  even 
by  the  female  suffragists,  that  most  public  offices  should  be 
filled  by  men  rather  than  by  women,  on  account  of  this  mascu- 
line superiority  in  political  efficiency.  Now,  it  cannot  surely  be 
expected  that  women  who  are  notoriously  lacking  in  firmness, 
courage,  determination  and  good  judgment,  will  as  voters  be 
as  expert  as  men  in  weighing  these  qualities,  in  appreciating 
their  extent,  or  in  discovering  their  presence  or  absence  in  the 
various  male  candidates  for  office  presented  for  a  choice. 

Not  only  are  the  majority  of  women  destitute  of  capacity 
to  take  a  personal  part  in  government  themselves,  but  they 
have  no  taste  for  politics,  nor  desire  to  become  proficient 
therein;  they  usually  dislike  to  read  or  to  seriously  discuss 
political  matters  of  any  kind.  One  would  like  to  be  able  to 
say,  that  none  of  them  care  to  take  part  in  the  vile  intrigues 
or  acts  of  violence,  which  are  the  unfortunate  incidents  of 
certain  low  political  work,  but  this  cannot  truthfully  be  said, 
in  view  of  the  ballot  box  stuffing  in  Colorado,  the  picketing  of 
the  White  House,  the  insults  to  and  assaults  upon  high  officials 
here  and  in  England  and  the  numerous  petty  crimes  committed 
there  by  militant  suffragettes  or  their  hirelings.  But  for  high 
or  abstract  politics,  the  study  of  political  questions,  states- 


WOMAN    SUFFRAGE   IN   THEORY  39 1 

manship,  political  history  and  political  economy,  women  have 
very  little  taste,  if  any.  It  is  the  general  opinion  that  the 
great  majority,  probably  three-fourths  of  the  women  of  the 
United  States  do  not  desire  the  vote  at  all,  never  have  desired 
it,  and  have  no  idea  what  to  do  with  it.  The  suffragette 
leaders  are  not  politicians  nor  political  students,  but  agitators; 
being  impelled  to  that  vocation  not  by  a  taste  for  politics  but 
by  a  love  of  money  and  notoriety.  The  only  recorded  case  of 
a  census  of  women's  opinion  on  female  suffrage  which  has 
come  to  the  writer's  attention  was  in  or  about  1908,  when  a 
Mr.  Bray,  a  member  of  the  legislature  from  some  city  of  Wis- 
consin, took  a  ballot  of  the  women  in  his  district,  about  eight 
thousand  in  number,  for  his  private  instruction  upon  this  sub- 
ject; with  the  result  that  not  a  single  ward,  city  or  village 
returned  a  majority  for  suffrage.  In  a  certain  working  people's 
ward,  the  vote  was  from  three  to  seven  against  the  franchise 
to  one  in  its  favor.  Most  teachers,  older  scholars,  librarians, 
nurses  and  dressmakers  voted  "Yes."  A  large  majority  of 
bookkeepers,  stenographers,  clerks,  factory  girls  and  hotel  em- 
ployees voted  "No."  Of  the  whole  eight  thousand  women, 
fully  two-thirds  voted  "No"  on  the  question.  That  is  to  say, 
two-thirds  of  the  women  agreed  that  not  only  they  themselves 
but  also  the  other  one-third  were  unfit  to  be  voters.  The 
fact  that  the  other  third  considered  themselves  competent  is 
of  little  consequence;  probably  they  excel  the  others  in 
nothing  more  than  self-conceit,  and  that  supremest  ignorance 
which  is  unaware  of  its  own  want  of  knowledge;  but  even  if 
this  third  were  eager  to  vote  and  would  make  a  good  use  of 
the  franchise,  that  fact  would  not  justify  the  admission  to  the 
electorate  of  the  other  two  thirds,  who  by  their  own  admission 
are  certain  to  misuse  it.  A  sensible  man  will  not  eat  an  entire 
apple  of  which  two  thirds  is  rotten  or  unripe,  and  whoever  does 
so  is  likely  to  pay  the  penalty. 

In  the  United  States  or  the  communities  of  the  United  States 
where  women  at  present  vote,  it  is  presumable  and  the  best 
evidence  obtainable  shows  that  most  of  those  who  really  ex- 


3Q2      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE  UNITED   STATES 

pect  advantage  from  the  suffrage  are  political  adventuresses, 
socialists  and  female  cranks;  the  remainder  exercise  the  vote 
without  any  real  understanding  of  what  they  are  doing;  some 
because  they  are  paid  or  coerced,  others  reluctantly  and 
only  from  a  mistaken  sense  of  duty,  or  upon  the  advice  or 
direction  of  some  husband,  father,  brother,  lover,  clergyman  or 
friend ;  or  in  gratification  of  some  spite,  passion,  fad  or  caprice 
which  has  possessed  them  for  the  time  being.  Most  of  them, 
even  those  who  pretend  to  intelligence,  are  less  fit  to  vote  than 
the  grimy  day  laborer,  whose  daily  talk  in  the  beer  saloon  is 
largely  of  the  practical  politics  of  the  district. 

Some  suffragettes,  while  acknowledging  the  existence  of  this 
notorious  political  indifference  and  ignorance  of  women,  say 
that  it  is  but  temporary,  and  will  disappear  with  time;  that 
with  the  incentive  of  the  vote  women  will  by  degrees  acquire 
a  taste  for  politics.  This  is  the  same  hollow  "harper" 
argument  herein  already  punctured,  that  was  used  to  justify 
the  giving  the  ballot  to  the  Southern  freedmen  in  1866  with 
disastrous  results.  It  offers  a  very  poor  outlook  for  the  state ; 
presenting  at  best  a  dim  hope  that  the  quality  of  the  female 
vote  may  aspire  some  centuries  later  to  equal  that  which  we 
have  already  obtained  in  the  male  vote.  Meantime  the  country 
must  suffer  while  the  women  practise  and  learn;  and  after  all 
the  result  will  only  be  to  bring  us  up  to  our  present  standard 
and  that  some  generations  hence. 

But  in  fact  there  is  no  such  hope;  the  women  will  never 
learn  politics  because  they  will  never  study  it;  the  incentives 
offered  do  not  appeal  to  women  with  sufficient  force  to  induce 
them  in  the  mass  to  enter  into  politics ;  their  indifference  thereto 
is  incurable;  it  amounts  in  many  cases  to  positive  aversion, 
and  proceeds  from  causes  which  are  likely  to  continue  to  oper- 
ate for  an  indefinite  period,  and  which  are  sufficiently  perma- 
nent in  their  nature  to  justify  a  strong  apprehension 
that  if  woman  suffrage  prevails  the  national  fabric  may 
sometime  be  endangered  thereby.  Foremost  among  these 
causes  is  the  compelling  power  of  Nature  herself, 


WOMAN    SUFFRAGE   IN    THEORY  393 

who  gave  the  woman  an  organism,  instincts,  and  ambi- 
tions of  her  very  own;  who  ordained  that  she  should  be  some- 
thing better  and  more  precious  than  a  cheap  echo  and  imita- 
tion of  man,  and  that  she  should  have  her  own  pleasures,  her 
own  tastes,  her  own  loves  and  hates,  her  own  life,  and  a  ca- 
pacity for  higher  existence  than  grovelling  in  the  muck  of  uni- 
versal suffrage  politics.  One  of  these  natural  instincts  requires, 
and  always  will  require,  healthy  minded  women  to  make  it 
their  first  object  to  please  men.  Now,  the  female  politician  is 
odious  to  most  men,  and  the  display  of  masculine  qualities 
by  a  woman  is  apt  to  provoke  them  to  something  like  disgust. 
This,  the  female  suffragette  leaders  fail  to  realize;  they  them- 
selves are  rather  peculiar  than  typical;  some  of  them  are  eccen- 
trics who  imagine  themselves  superior  when  they  are  merely 
odd,  and  are  or  pretend  to  be  devoid  of  that  instinctive  desire 
for  male  admiration  and  to  be  charming,  which  is  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  best  in  woman.  But  they  will  never  be  followed  by 
the  mass  of  loving  and  practical  women  into  the  dreary  abode 
where  they  pass  their  cold  and  shrill  existences.  Already  the 
women  voters  in  States  where  woman  suffrage  is  established 
are  deserting  these  female  agitators;  they  are  being  deposed 
from  leadership,  and  male  politicians  are  rapidly  taking  com- 
mand, and  replacing  them  by  their  own  lieutenants,  usually 
women  who  avoided  the  suffrage  agitation;  often  the  wives  and 
sisters  of  these  politicians.  So  that  it  is  already  coming  to  pass 
that  female  politics,  instead  of  representing  woman's  political 
independence,  will  strengthen  male  bossism;  thus  affording  one 
more  instance  of  the  operation  of  Nature's  fiat  that  certain 
jobs  are  exclusively  for  men,  and  that  one  of  them  is  the  job  of 
governing  the  world  and  every  part  thereof. 

Not  only  is  it  true  that  women  as  a  class  have  no  natural 
liking  for  politics,  but  they  will  never  become  acquainted  with 
it  for  want  of  proper  opportunity.  Such  opportunity  is  in  the 
nature  of  things  confined  to  the  men  of  the  nation,  and  comes 
from  mixing  with  other  men,  and  with  the  transactions  and 
business  of  other  men  day  after  day.  A  slight  acquaintance 


394      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

with  it  may  be  acquired  by  reading,  or  instruction,  but 
not  nearly  as  much  as  by  the  constant,  never-ending  inter- 
course of  men  of  affairs  with  each  other,  on  the  mart,  and  in 
the  business  places  of  the  city  and  country.  Our  standards 
of  life  are  such,  that  women,  even  if  their  natural  tastes  did  not 
disincline  them  to  it,  are  necessarily  excluded  from  that  inter- 
communion with  business  men;  therefore,  the  information  and 
experience  thus  obtained  by  men  are  not  within  the  reach  of 
women,  even  of  those  employed  by  men  in  stores  and  offices, 
most  of  whom  are  further  debarred  therefrom  by  their  being 
in  subordinate  employments.  Nor  are  women,  even  so-called 
business  women,  as  a  class,  engaged  in  the  acquisition  of 
property;  even  when  employed  in  business  or  a  profession,  their 
proficiency  being  inferior  to  that  of  men,  they  do  not  often 
earn  sufficient  to  enable  them  to  make  substantial  accumula- 
tions; and  they  seldom  make  a  life  career  of  any  employment 
in  which  they  are  engaged.  Of  the  comparatively  small  num- 
ber of  women  employed  in  mercantile  pursuits  or  in  the  busi- 
ness part  of  manufacturing,  the  practical  knowledge  possessed 
by  most  of  them,  of  the  effects  of  legislation  in  government 
administration,  of  the  tariff  for  instance,  taxation,  corporate 
law,  banking  law,  etc.,  is  so  small  as  to  be  negligible. 

Passing,  because  it  speaks  for  itself,  the  case  of  the  millions 
of  negresses  to  whom  it  is  proposed  to  give  the  ballot,  and 
considering  that  of  the  white  women  only,  we  find  that  to  the 
vast  majority  of  farmer's  wives,  female  servants,  factory  girls, 
dressmakers,  sewing  women,  waitresses,  shop  girls  and  the  like, 
the  very  word  "politics"  conveys  no  exact  or  correct  meaning; 
by  far  the  most  of  them  are  not  only  lacking  in  acquaintance 
with  the  subjects  of  political  economy,  finance,  constitutional 
law,  foreign  trade  relations  and  treaties  with  foreign  nations, 
but  they  are  unable  even  to  correctly  define  the  names  of  those 
subjects.  Then  coming  to  a  better  read  class  of  women,  such 
as  teachers,  stenographers,  bookkeepers,  cashiers,  typewriters, 
etc.,  while  many  of  them  would  be  able  to  give  the  definitions 
alluded  to,  their  knowledge  would  scarcely  go  farther.  Very 


WOMAN   SUFFRAGE   IN   THEORY  395 

few  of  them  ever  read  the  newspaper  political  articles;  still 
fewer  have  ever  read  or  heard  discussed  a  work  of  any  sort  on 
politics  or  political  questions.  Why,  indeed,  should  they  read 
works  which  deal  exclusively  with  matters  belonging  to  mascu- 
line life?  In  fact  most  women  belonging  to  the  classes  above 
mentioned,  except  such  factory  girls  as  are  socialists,  have 
refrained  from  taking  part  in  the  suffrage  agitation  and  from 
any  demand  for  the  ballot.  Most  good  women  who  believe  in 
woman  suffrage,  hope  to  become  instructed  in  politics  through 
reading  books,  newspapers  and  magazines;  and  it  is  noticeable 
that  the  female  suffragists  constantly  talk  and  write  as  though 
intelligence  enough  to  read  were  sufficient  qualification  for  a 
voter;  they  assume  that  one  can  learn  how  to  vote  by  merely 
reading  the  newspapers;  completely  ignoring  the  qualities  and 
training  which  will  enable  the  voter  to  properly  understand 
and  weigh  the  newspaper  statements,  and  to  discard  newspaper 
lies.  Mere  general  intelligence  is  not  a  sufficient  endowment  for 
a  voter;  otherwise  an  entire  stranger  in  the  community  could 
cast  a  wise  vote  at  its  elections ;  he  needs  as  well  that  good  judg- 
ment and  firmness,  that  knowledge  of  actual  life,  of  business 
needs  and  conditions,  of  local  circumstances,  and  of  the  mo- 
tives and  reputation  of  public  men,  which  women  can  never 
hope  to  acquire  in  the  same  degree  as  men.  No  subject  can  be 
mastered  merely  by  reading,  and  politics  least  of  all ;  and  it  is 
of  all  branches  of  knowledge  the  one  which  women  are  least 
fitted  to  acquire.  For  politics  is  concerned  with  the  doings  of ! 
men  in  their  pursuit  of  money  and  fame;  and  in  modern' 
times  especially  with  their  business  doings.  The  pursuit  of 
money  and  fame  are  essentially  masculine  vocations;  it  is  im- 
possible for  women  even  to  attempt  to  compete  with  men  in 
those  undertakings,  nor  to  understand  their  conditions,  nor 
with  rare  exceptions  do  women  ever  really  wish  to  do  so.  As 
a  branch  of  knowledge  politics  includes  such  subjects  as  his- 
tory, finance,  economics,  foreign  trade  relations,  war,  legal 
principles,  constitutional  law,  naval  affairs,  the  study  of  men 
and  of  their  prejudices  and  capabilities.  Few  men  have  time  or 


3Q6      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN    THE   UNITED    STATES 

inclination  to  study  these  matters  in  the  abstract  sufficiently 
to  enable  them  to  properly  estimate  important  political  meas- 
ures. But  this  defect  in  men's  education  is  corrected  to  a 
very  considerable  extent,  by  daily  practical  experience.  Busi- 
ness men  are  experts  in  innumerable  activities  of  which  their 
women  are  absolutely  ignorant,  and  they  are  thus  made  capable 
of  understanding  the  language  of  many  of  those  subjects. 
They  have  besides,  the  inestimable  advantage  of  actual  contact 
with  men  and  groups  of  men,  in  their  daily  business  life,  who 
are  more  or  less  interested  in  these  matters;  of  hearing  their 
opinions  directly  or  at  second  hand;  with  the  further  advantage 
of  experience  direct  or  indirect  in  the  results  or  effects  of  politi- 
cal action.  All  this  is  part  of  the  atmosphere  and  circum- 
stance of  a  man's  business  life.  An  appreciable  portion  of 
this  information  is  constantly  being  spread  and  distributed  by 
business  men,  and  find  its  way  from  them  into  the  minds  of  the 
farmers,  mechanics  and  other  men  similarly  interested.  The  re- 
sult is,  and  has  been,  to  set  up  among  active  and  thrifty  men  a 
current  of  practical  information  concerning  public  matters, 
and  to  create  a  taste  for  politics,  and  for  the  subjects  cognate 
to  politics,  which  is  practically  universal  among  men,  and  is 
almost  utterly  lacking  in  women,  who  not  only  do  not  possess 
it,  but  do  not  realize  its  existence.  Many  a  village  boy  of 
fifteen  has  more  curiosity  about  politics,  and  more  real  knowl- 
edge thereof  than  any  women  in  the  community. 

Having  thus  it  is  hoped  without  too  much  prolixity,  pre- 
sented our  argument  against  female  suffrage,  let  us  take  up  one 
by  one  and  reply  to  the  principal  points  made  by  its  friends 
in  its  favor  in  their  publications  and  other  public  utterances. 

A.  The  "Nagging"  or  "Henpeck"  scheme.  This  is  a  theory 
or  explanation  of  the  intended  operation  of  woman  suffrage, 
offered  by  many  suffragists,  who  apparently  realize  some  of  the 
manifest  dangers  and  absurdities  likely  to  attend  upon  female 
legislation  and  administration.  They  deprecate  any  idea  of 
abolishing  man's  supremacy  in  government,  or  of  subverting  his 
time-honored  institutions;  they  insist  that  female  suffrage  does 


WOMAN   SUFFRAGE   IN   THEORY  397 

not  mean  the  introduction  into  politics  of  a  new  political  power, 
nor  even  a  modification  of  the  present  masculine  regime;  it 
is  no  more  than  a  convenient  method  of  placing  at  the  disposal 
of  the  governing  males  a  source  of  female  wisdom  of  which 
they  have  heretofore  been  deprived.  The  female  politicians  are 
merely  to  recommend  and  urge  such  measures,  mostly  in  family 
and  sociological  matters,  as  the  governing  males  may  happen  to 
overlook;  it  being  assumed,  no  one  knows  why,  that  woman's 
knowledge  of  these  subjects  is  intuitive,  inborn,  at  any  rate 
superior  to  man's.  Under  this  plan,  the  men  are  of  course 
to  be  free  to  reject  the  advice  of  the  new  women;  otherwise 
they  would  be  in  the  position  of  an  East  Indian  rajah  to  whom 
the  British  government  has  assigned  an  "adviser,"  and  who  if 
he  should  refuse  to  profit  by  his  "advice"  would  be  quickly 
brought  to  book  by  the  British  military  power.  The  theory 
then  is,  that  the  male  officials  are  not  to  be  exactly  subject  to 
the  female  bosses  or  leaders  who  may  become  their  monitors; 
but  it  is  understood,  of  course,  that  they  are  likely  to  listen 
respectfully  to  counselors,  who  though  they  may  roar,  look 
you,  as  gently  as  a  sucking  dove,  will  be  backed  by  an  earnest 
and  somewhat  excitable  and  vociferous  petticoated  constitu- 
ency. No  doubt  in  order  to  get  what  they  want,  these  ladies 
will  soon  find  means  of  persuasion,  of  which  the  least  urgent 
will  consist  of  the  process  known  to  some  unfortunate  husbands 
as  "nagging,"  and  to  the  derisive  neighbors  as  "henpecking." 
So,  though  the  general  superiority  of  the  male  governmental 
faculty  is  conceded,  the  male  governing  officials  are  not  to  be 
allowed  to  go  on  quite  as  they  have  been  doing;  the  women  will 
be  there  to  "advise."  In  plain  words  the  proposition  is  to 
henpeck  the  public  officials  and  other  politicians  into  giving 
offices  to  the  female  bosslets,  and  into  the  adoption  of  their 
ladylike  fads  and  frills.  The  picture  in  "Pinafore"  of  a  high 
political  dignitary  on  his  official  rounds  with  a  squawking  com- 
pany of  women  at  his  heels,  is  to  become  actually  embodied 
in  American  political  life. 
This  suggestion  of  pressure  upon  government  by  harmless 


398      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

nagging  and  henpecking  is  certainly  shallow  and  unpractical, 
and  is  probably  insincere.  If  this  is  all  that  was  intended,  it 
was  worse  than  folly  to  force  the  general  suffrage  upon  mil- 
lions of  reluctant  women.  Those  women  who  wished  to  nag 
and  agitate  were  always  at  perfect  liberty  to  do  so.  They  were 
always  free  to  talk;  and  if  they  wanted  to  be  clad  with  formal 
authority  to  represent  these  few  matters  in  which  they  claim  a 
special  interest,  that  too  could  have  been  provided  for;  repre- 
sentative women  could  have  been  elected  or  appointed  to  ad- 
visory boards  or  committees,  commissioned  to  present  their 
views  to  the  public  officials  in  an  authoritative  manner;  leav- 
ing the  latter  to  act  in  their  discretion.  But  no;  the  suffra- 
gettes demanded,  and  are  demanding,  nothing  less  than  a  full 
and  equal  share  with  men  in  actual  government,  with  equal 
responsibility  for  the  results.  The  talk  about  women  merely 
acting  as  advisers  or  proposers  is  sham  and  nonsense.  Under 
the  new  regime,  the  female  spirit  is  to  take  possession  equally 
with  the  male,  of  every  part  of  the  body  politic,  with  the  ob- 
vious result  of  dislodging  half  of  the  masculine  element  in  our 
governmental  system.  A  vote  cast  by  a  woman  is  not  a  mere 
suggestion;  it  is  an  act  of  government;  once  deposited  in  the 
urn,  it  counts  equal  to  and  effective  with  a  man's  vote.  And 
each  woman's  vote  must  either  cancel  or  confirm  the  vote  of 
some  man.  There  is  no  logical  or  practical  escape  from  this 
situation.  Woman  suffrage  can  have  no  actual  effect  except  such 
as  involves  a  defeat  of  masculine  government;  a  nullification 
to  some  extent  of  what  men  are  doing  or  have  done.  If  it  is  to 
operate  in  mere  confirmation  of  the  rules  or  decrees  of  man,  it 
is  unnecessary,  and  will  be  ineffectual;  its  only  possible  effect 
must  be  in  contravention  of  man's  political  control.  It  is  either 
this  or  nothing.  As  for  womanly  counsel,  whatever  of  that  was 
effective  under  a  male  suffrage  polity,  will  with  woman  suffrage 
established,  necessarily  be  replaced  by  female  political  coer- 
cion and  intrigue.  When  men  are  in  supreme  power,  a  deputa- 
tion of  benevolent  ladies  urging  some  remedial  measure  or 
charitable  modification,  is  sure  to  receive  consideration  from 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  IN  THEORY  399 

public  officials;  but  what  politician  will  be  foolish  enough  to 
give  ear  to  non-political  ladies  offering  mere  womanly  counsel 
on  any  subject,  when  his  female  constituents  are  thundering 
at  his  door  with  contrary  demands,  which  they  have  the  power 
to  enforce  by  political  methods?  The  effect  of  woman  suffrage 
is  thus  to  completely  destroy  the  political  influence  of  all 
ladies  who  are  not  political  workers,  and  to  replace  it  by  the 
domination,  meddling  and  intrigue  of  female  politicians,  who 
will  speedily  learn  from  the  men  to  invent  reforms  with  jobs 
attached,  to  swap  political  support  for  graft,  and  to  market 
moral  issues. 

Consider  the  unescapable  facts,  and  note  the  silliness  and 
fraud  of  the  pretence  that  the  women  in  politics  will  be  no 
more  than  gentle  advisers  to  the  men  in  certain  matters.  In 
the  woman  suffrage  states  women  vote  with  the  men,  and  at 
the  same  elections,  for  president  and  vice-president  of  the 
United  States;  members  of  Congress,  senators  and  represen- 
tatives; governors  and  other  state  officers;  members  of  state 
legislatures;  mayors  of  cities;  city  and  county  officers,  etc. 
etc.  In  every  election  contest  there  are  usually  two  principal 
candidates  for  each  of  the  above  offices;  say  a  better  fitted 
or  superior  candidate  A  and  an  inferior  candidate  B,  the  in- 
terest of  the  public  being  to  select  A.  Now  if  the  majority  of 
each  sex  favors  A  he  is  elected,  but  to  no  more  purpose  than 
he  would  have  been  without  the  woman  vote.  How  then  in 
that  first  case,  have  the  women  aided  or  counselled  the  men? 
But  if  as  will  certainly  happen  in  most  elections  one  of  the 
candidates  A  or  B  is  defeated  by  the  woman  vote,  what  dif- 
ference is  there  between  the  effect  of  each  woman's  vote  and 
that  of  each  man's?  Can  anyone  say  that  the  women  merely 
counselled  with  the  men,  that  they  did  not  overrule  them?  If 
a  candidate  is  defeated  by  aid  of  the  female  vote  who  would 
not  otherwise  have  been  defeated,  are  not  the  men  overruled? 
The  question  is  absurd;  as  well  say  that  the  men  merely  ad- 
vise the  women,  as  that  the  women  merely  advise  the  men. 
The  same  reasoning  applies  to  votes  on  legislative  proposals; 


4OO      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

the  woman's  vote  will  in  every  case  either  overrule  the  ma- 
jority male  vote,  or  it  will  be  totally  ineffective.  There  is 
absolutely  no  escape  from  the  logic  of  the  case. 

The  pretence  that  certain  women  have  some  secret  and  mys- 
terious knowledge  to  impart  to  lawmakers  and  law  adminis- 
trators is  preposterous.  It  is  the  offspring  of  the  conceited 
minds  of  some  well-to-do  idle  female  faddists,  who  want  to 
get  into  public  notice.  Some  of  them  pretend  that  this  private 
knowledge  concerns  factory  girls,  whose  cause  they  pretend 
to  espouse,  but  who  in  fact  hate  and  despise  them  and  their 
officious  meddling.  When  working  women  have  anything  to 
say  to  public  officials,  they  can  say  so  directly  or  hire  a  lawyer 
to  do  it  for  them,  as  the  men  do.  Some  of  those  busy  bodies 
pretend  that  they  have  the  secret  of  the  proper  treatment  of 
fallen  women;  but  legislation  will  never  help  these  people;  it 
has  not  needed  the  vote  to  enable  most  women  to  be  cruel  to 
them  in  the  past,  nor  is  the  franchise  needed  to-day  to  qualify 
good  women  to  be  charitable  to  them  or  to  any  other  human 
beings  in  the  future.  Truth  is,  that  in  the  entire  domain  of 
sociology  the  female  suffragists  have  nothing  whatever  to  pro- 
pose except  what  they  have  borrowed  from  the  socialists;  and 
that  we  had  already,  and  knew  to  be  worse  than  worthless. 
Their  talk  about  superior  ability  to  care  for  the  children  is 
more  prattle;  one  of  the  best  feminist  writers,  Mrs.  Gilman, 
has  called  attention  in  strong  and  plain  language  to  the  record 
of  notorious  incapacity  on  the  part  of  women  in  the  care  of 
children  (Women  and  Economics).  The  best  that  a  woman 
can  do  for  her  child  when  ill  is  to  take  advice  from  the  best 
available  male  physician.  The  administration  of  foundling 
asylums,  children's  hospitals  and  homes  is  safer  in  the  hands 
of  men  than  in  those  of  women.  Most  real  reforms  and  im- 
provements in  medicine,  surgery,  ventilation,  diet,  architec- 
ture, drainage,  plumbing,  and  other  branches  of  hygiene  and 
sanitation  have  come  and  will  come  from  the  male  intellect 
and  will  be  and  are  best  enforced  by  masculine  administration. 

Under  the  regime  of  universal  suffrage  it  is  safe  to  predict 


WOMAN   SUFFRAGE  IN   THEORY  401 

that  the  "Naggers"  will  have  little  influence  in  government. 
They  will  interest  themselves  as  the  "Watch  Dogs"  do,  and 
sometimes  they  will  collide  with  the  "Watch  Dogs,"  whose 
ideal  is  to  save  public  money,  while  that  of  the  "Naggers" 
will  be  to  spend  it.  Their  sympathies  will  probably  tend 
towards  the  cranks,  or  "Yellow  Dogs"  of  politics.  They  will 
very  much  enjoy  meddling  in  all  sorts  of  things  of  which  they 
know  nothing;  and  now  and  then  they  will  get  something 
through,  over  which  they  will  crow  and  chuckle.  But  the 
female  masses  will  make  but  little  response  to  independent 
appeals  of  "Naggers,"  "Watch  Dogs"  or  other  similar  bands 
of  insurgents.  They  will  be  quite  under  the  control  of  the 
machines  of  the  respective  parties;  their  votes  will  be  cast  for 
the  machine  candidates;  and  so  political  ignorance  and  cor- 
ruption doubly  supported  will  flourish  more  and  more. 

To  conclude  with  the  "henpeck"  project;  this  notion  of 
sending  the  weak  and  incompetent  to  hinder  or  modify  the 
counsels  of  the  strong  and  capable  on  pretence  of  giving  them 
advice,  is  one  of  the  most  foolish  of  many  foolish  products  of 
the  untrained  intellect.  It  is  a  childish  subterfuge  of  those 
who  are  ashamed  to  say  outright  that  their  fathers,  husbands 
and  brothers  are  inferior  in  political  capacity  to  their  mothers 
and  sisters.  But  that  assertion  is  just  what  is  implied  in 
female  suffrage,  which  by  reducing  by  one  half  the  value  and 
force  of  the  ballot  of  each  male  voter,  will  have  the  actual 
effect  of  a  moiety  disfranchisement  of  the  men  of  the  country. 

B.  Man-made  law.  One  of  the  silliest  claims  of  the  female 
suffrage  agitators,  is  that  they  want  political  power,  in  order 
to  repeal  what  they  flippantly  call  "man-made  law."  As  well 
sneer  at  man-made  geology,  man-made  mathematics  or  man- 
made  astronomy;  man-made  they  are  indeed,  and  so  are  all 
the  arts  and  sciences,  industries  and  philosophies.  Of  the 
fact  that  law  is  a  great  science  with  its  roots  deep  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  past  ages;  of  the  immensity  of  the  great  body 
of  the  law,  with  its  scores  of  divisions  and  branches,  and 
hundreds  of  subdivisions,  these  chatterers  seem  to  have  no 


402      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

suspicion.  When  they  undertake  to  specify  the  defects  in  the 
great  juristic  achievements  of  our  law  givers  past  and  present, 
they  point  with  scorn  to  two  or  three  instances  of  ancient 
British  legislation  affecting  the  family  relation,  which  like  all 
really  useful  and  practical  law  represented  the  customs  and 
ideals  of  the  time.  Those  ideals  have  since  been  modified, 
and  the  law  has  been  changed  accordingly;  in  one  case  for 
instance  by  a  statute  passed  about  1850  by  which  married 
women  are  permitted  freely  to  dispose  of  their  separate  prop- 
erty. But  this  measure,  of  which  the  suffragists  always  speak 
as  if  they  had  put  it  through,  was  adopted  upon  the  suggestion 
of  men  long  before  women  had  any  political  power,  and  en- 
tirely without  their  aid.  The  results  of  that  act  have  not  been 
altogether  happy;  it  is  nothing  to  boast  of  specially;  it  was 
not  a  tribute  to  higher  ideals,  but  a  concession  to  human 
weakness,  and  has  enabled  many  a  rascal  to  cheat  his  creditors 
by  putting  his  property  in  his  wife's  name.  The  old  common 
law  ideal  was  much  the  higher  one;  it  conceived  of  the  family 
as  a  unit;  and  placed  all  its  property  in  one  common  fund  in 
the  name  of  and  under  the  guardianship  of  the  husband,  as 
the  head  and  representative  of  the  house.  Its  motto  was  like 
that  of  the  Three  Musketeers,  "One  for  all  and  all  for  one," 
which  is  a  much  more  noble  and  lofty  conception,  and  much 
more  likely  to  promote  family  happiness  and  family  success, 
than  any  represented  by  the  Woman's  Separate  Property  Act, 
or  by  all  that  has  been  so  far  offered  to  the  world  by  all  the 
women  suffrage  associations  put  together.  Under  the  old 
common  law,  a  knave  could  not,  as  now,  shelter  himself  from 
his  creditors  behind  his  wife's  skirts,  and  keep  her  and  his 
family  in  base  luxury  while  his  trusting  creditors  suffered. 

C.  The  legend  "No  taxation  without  representation"  is 
one  of  the  suffragist  catchwords.  Just  what  is  meant  by  this 
nobody  knows;  but  if  it  be  offered  as  a  political  maxim  de- 
rived from  our  ancestors,  the  answer  is  that  they  never  under- 
stood or  interpreted  this  saying  as  justifying  woman  suffrage, 
or  any  other  right  to  vote  than  that  of  the  propertied  classes. 


WOMAN   SUFFRAGE   IN   THEORY  403 

By  taxation,  they  meant  direct  taxation  on  tangible  property; 
and  as  to  representation,  they  considered  that  the  women  and 
children  as  a  class  were  politically  represented  by  their  men. 
If,  however,  by  this  saying,  "No  taxation  without  representa- 
tion/' the  suffragists  mean  that  every  taxpayer  has  a  right  to 
vote,  that  proposition  has  already  been  answered  herein  by 
the  true  doctrine  that  suffrage  is  not  a  right  at  all,  but  a  func- 
tion of  government,  to  be  performed  by  those  classes  whom 
the  state  may  select  as  duly  qualified.  Nor  does  taxation  ever 
confer  a  right  to  vote;  taxation  is  justified  not  by  the  fran- 
chise, but  by  the  protection  given  by  government  to  the  taxed 
property;  property  owners  pay  the  tax  as  a  return  for  that 
protection;  and  therefore  not  only  women  but  non-residents, 
resident  aliens,  and  children  owning  property  in  the  com- 
munity are  justly  taxed,  though  not  allowed  to  vote. 

D.  The  maternity  claim.    Some  emotional  women  have  ac- 
tually made  claim  to  the  franchise  based  upon  the  merits  and 
dangers  of  maternity.    This  is  mere  nonsense.    If  women  are 
not  competent  to  vote  on  public  affairs,  their  votes  will  be 
injurious  to  the  republic;  and  they  cannot  be  permitted  to  do 
themselves  and  others  an  injury  merely  because  they  have 
borne  children.    It  is  not  enough  to  mean  well;  the  female 
turkey  means  well  by  her  chickens  but  she  will  often  clumsily 
trample  them  to  death  if  not  prevented.    To  bear  children  is 
natural  to  women  and  is  its  own  great  reward;  it  is  dangerous, 
but  no  more  so  than  going  to  sea,  and  it  is  not  proposed  to 
give  the  vote  to  sailors  to  recompense  them  for  their  risk. 
The  suffrage  is  not  a  reward;  it  is  a  function  and  a  trust. 

E.  That   women   have   interests   'separate   from   that   of 
men.    This  is  an  absurd  proposition.     The  social  and  family 
ties   and   obligations   of   the   sexes   and    their   interests    in 
public  matters  are  identical.    The  very  existence  of  a  woman 
implies  the  care  and  devotion  of  a  father,  and  also  the  ties 
of  family  interest,  family  life  and  family  love,  all  of  which  are 
male  as  well  as  female.    The  sex  difference  is  not  as  other 
differences  are,  a  separating  influence;  it  is  a  unifying  impulse; 


404      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES 

it  not  only  unites  but  fuses  the  subjects  of  its  action.  In  al- 
most all  instances  the  prizes  achieved  by  the  individual  man, 
riches,  ambitions,  and  all  the  rest  are  shared  to  the  utmost 
with  his  women.  On  the  other  hand  women  never  think  of 
sharing  their  lives  or  their  incomes  with  strangers  of  their 
sex,  but  always  with  those  of  their  own  family  and  blood,  males 
as  well  as  females,  the  preference  if  any  being  to  the  males. 
But  though  under  the  present  system  the  interests  of  men  and 
women  are  made  as  far  as  possible  identical,  the  tendency  of 
feminism  is  to  separate  them,  with  a  prospect  of  very  ill  results 
for  women. 

F.  Man's  alleged  unfairness  to  women.      To  those  who 
have  not  suffered  the  annoyance  of  having  to  read  suffragist 
literature,  it  will  seem  almost  incredible  that  even  the  most 
unscrupulous  of  its  purveyors  would  accuse  men  of  general 
unfairness  to  women.     Nevertheless,  they  have  done  so  re- 
peatedly and  the  charge  must  therefore  be  noticed.    Indeed  it 
is  well  that  it  should  be  given  prominence,  so  that  people  may 
realize  the  offensive  character  of  some  of  the  incidents  of  the 
suffrage  movement.    Women  should  always  realize  that  they 
owe  all  they  are  and  have  to  the  generosity,  love,  foresight 
and  ability  of  men.    Most  of  the  harridans  and  termagants, 
who  in  the  suffrage  agitation  have  displayed  themselves  as 
slanderers  and  insulters  of  men,  were  born  and  raised  in  houses 
built  by  men,  fed  and  clad  with  material  furnished  by  men, 
educated  by  books  written  by  men,  attended  schools  and  col- 
leges founded  and  maintained  by  men,  or  with  money  earned 
by  men,  are  cared  for  by  male  physicians,  and  are  now  either 
living  on  the  income  of  money  amassed  by  men,  or  are  em- 
ployed by  men,  from  whom  they  receive  the  salaries  and 
instructions  necessary  to  enable  them  to  earn  a  living. 

G.  That  women's  wages  in  factories  and  stores  are  too  low 
and  should  be  higher.    No  voting  or  legislation  can  perma- 
nently augment  the  income  or  comforts  of  any  class  of  people, 
or  increase  women's  wages  with  any  good  effect.     All  wages 
seem  low  to  the  recipient  and  high  to  the  employer.    Increased 


WOMAN   SUFFRAGE  IN   THEORY  405 

wages  usually  produce  higher  rent  and  higher  cost  of  living; 
the  increased  cost  of  living  makes  marriage  and  home  life 
more  difficult,  and  from  this  women  as  well  as  men  ultimately 
suffer.  If  women  generally  really  believe  that  their  incomes  can 
be  increased  by  voting  and  legislation,  that  of  itself  proves  their 
total  unfitness  to  meddle  in  government.  But  suppose  that 
it  were  possible  by  legislation  to  materially  increase  the  wages 
of  factory  women  and  store  girls,  what  would  be  the  ultimate 
result  to  the  community?  A  large  increase  in  the  number  of 
women  taken  out  of  households  and  put  into  stores  and  factory 
life.  No  intelligent  person  believes  that  this  change  would 
really  be  to  the  advantage  of  women  as  a  class,  nor  doubts 
that  it  would  be  the  result  of  artificially  advancing  wages  of 
such  women  above  their  natural  level. 

H.  That  women  should  be  consulted  on  new  legislation  af- 
fecting marital  relations.  No  such  legislation  is  needed.  The 
marriage  status  of  a  couple  is  not  to  be  regulated  by  law;  it 
is  controlled  by  social  usage,  by  religion  and  by  sentiment. 
The  only  really  important  legal  provision  is  one  dictated  by 
nature  and  by  custom,  namely  that  the  husband  must  sup- 
port the  family.  This  requirement  necessarily  involves  the 
right  of  the  husband  to  seek  and  select  his  own  vocation,  and 
to  choose  the  style  and  place  of  family  residence.  None  of 
these  arrangements  can  be  materially  modified  without  break- 
ing up  the  family  and  the  state.  That  to  destroy  the  family 
and  the  state  is  the  tendency  of  the  feminist  movement  no 
thinking  man  can  doubt. 

Some  of  the  suffragist  agitators,  pretending  to  be  moved  by 
a  sentimental  tenderness  for  the  feelings  of  mothers,  demand 
that  the  law  be  changed  so  as  to  give  the  guardianship  of  chil- 
dren to  the  mother  in  case  of  separation  of  parents.  The  law 
as  it  stands  rightly  provides  that  the  interests  of  the  child  in 
each  particular  case,  and  not  the  whims  or  desires  of  the  par- 
ents, are  to  be  considered  as  paramount  in  settling  that  matter. 
This  is  man-made  law,  and  is  much  more  humane  and  just 
than  anything  the  suffragists  have  ever  suggested. 


406      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

J.  That  women  have  special  capacity  for  municipal 
government  because  it  resembles  housekeeping.  This  argu- 
ment is  an  unfortunate  one  for  the  suffragists,  for  if  there  is 
one  art  in  which  most  of  them  are  notoriously  inefficient  it  is 
in  housekeeping.  But  municipal  government  is  a  matter 
of  administrative  detail;  of  business  methods  combined  with 
highly  developed  specialized  practical  science,  and  not  at  all 
like  housekeeping.  As  President  Lowell  says,  "The  City  Gov- 
ernment is  essentially  an  administrative,  not  a  legislative  con- 
cern." It  is  not,  therefore,  a  fit  subject  for  political  twaddle 
and  sentimental  vaporings  such  as  the  suffragists  revel  in.  Nor 
should  city  officials  be  elected  by  the  people  under  any  system 
of  suffrage.  They  should  be  appointive  and  not  elective  offi- 
cials; carefully  chosen  experts;  competent  to  deal  with  matters 
of  public  health,  protection  against  fire,  liquor  regulation,  water 
supply,  disposal  of  sewage,  cleaning  and  maintenance  of  streets 
and  bridges,  wires  and  pipes  in  streets,  public  lighting,  ferries, 
rapid  transit,  erection  and  maintenance  of  public  buildings, 
wharves  and  docks,  public  education,  treatment  of  disease, 
pauperism  and  crime,  besides  the  levying  assessment  and  collec- 
tion of  taxes  and  the  financing  of  thousands  and  even  millions  of 
dollars  yearly.  Yet  suffragists  talk  of  "housekeeping"  in  cities 
as  if  it  were  a  matter  of  dusting  the  parlor  furniture  and  laying 
the  table  for  dinner.  How  many  of  them  are  capable  of 
planning  for  the  water  supply,  and  the  disposal  of  the  sewage  of 
a  great  city,  for  instance?  Here  are  matters  which  require  to 
be  dealt  with  by  men  of  practical  knowledge  and  force  of  char- 
acter, and  who  have  the  wisdom  derived  from  actual  experi- 
ence in  finance,  engineering,  sanitation,  medicine,  surgery,  ped- 
agogics and  law.  To  say  that  women  as  a  class  are  equal  or 
any  way  near  equal  to  men  in  knowledge  of  these  subjects  or 
capacity  to  deal  with  them  is  absurd. 

K.  That  many  women  have  property  of  their  own.  The 
point  of  this  argument  lies  in  the  question,  why  not  a  property 
qualification  for  women  as  well  as  for  men?  The  answer  is, 
that  as  already  stated  in  this  volume,  the  vote  is  not  given  to 


WOMAN   SUFFRAGE  IN   THEORY  407 

the  property  but  to  the  property  plus  the  human  owner,  with 
his  added  endowment  of  experience  acquired  in  its  acquisition 
and  care.  It  is  proposed  to  limit  the  franchise  to  this  class  of 
men,  as  on  the  whole  best  fitted  to  exercise  it  for  the  benefit  of 
the  state.  In  the  case  of  women,  the  mere  possession  of  prop- 
erty does  not,  as  in  the  case  of  men,  carry  with  it  a  general  pre- 
sumption of  business  experience  and  ability.  The  class 
of  women  who  own  property  are,  no  doubt,  better  voting  ma- 
terial than  the  propertyless  women;  but,  as  a  class,  they  have 
had  far  less  business  and  political  training  than  the  propertied 
men.  The  great  majority  of  propertied  women  are  so  merely 
by  inheritance;  and  are  but  little  more  informed  in  business 
matters  than  their  servants.  Their  tastes  and  predilections  do 
not  as  a  rule  extend  beyond  dress,  society,  music  and  household 
matters.  Not  having  themselves  accumulated  property,  they 
do  not  understand  property  or  business  rights,  and  their  tem- 
peraments and  circumstances  forbid  that  they  shall  ever 
understand  them.  Women  passengers  at  sea  have  property 
and  precious  lives  to  be  protected,  yet  they  are  never  allowed 
even  in  danger  to  interfere  in  the  management  of  the  ship. 
Nor  do  individual  or  exceptional  cases  matter.  Legislation 
must  be  made  to  fit  classes,  not  individuals,  and  therefore  ref- 
erences to  George  Eliot  and  Mme.  Curie  are  unconvincing. 
Alexander  Hamilton  at  eighteen  was  probably  better  qualified 
to  vote  than  many  actual  voters,  but  that  was  no  reason  for 
changing  the  law  so  as  to  allow  youths  to  vote.  A  whole  class 
of  incompetents  must  not  be  let  in  merely  to  get  a  few  intelli- 
gent votes.  The  mere  fact  that  so  many  women  are  willing  that 
this  should  be  done,  proclaims  a  condition  of  egotistic  stupidity 
and  a  lack  of  patriotism  which  is  appalling.  Propertied  women 
should  be  content  to  let  the  propertied  men  vote  for  them  for 
a  reason  similar  to  that  which  requires  any  one  of  them  to 
give  way  to  a  physician's  orders  in  the  case  of  a  sick  child. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

WOMAN    SUFFRAGE    IN    PRACTICE 

IN  the  year  1918  women  were  first  granted  complete  suffrage 
by  the  great  State  of  New  York.  The  result  has  not  been  such 
as  to  surprise  any  thinking  man,  but  it  must  have  astonished 
the  many  credulous  ones  who  expected  political  progress  and 
reform  from  the  fair  hands  of  women,  for  it  has  been  merely 
to  strengthen  the  power  of  the  bosses  and  political  rings  every- 
where throughout  the  state.  In  New  York  City,  where  the 
dominant  political  machine  is  the  Tammany  Democratic  or- 
ganization, the  Tammany  vote  which  in  1917  under  manhood 
suffrage  was  314,000  sprang  in  1918  to  547,000  and  the  Tam- 
many majority  was  increased  by  over  100,000,  reaching  the 
high  figure  of  258,000.  Fools  build  houses  and  wise  men  live 
in  them.  The  female  suffrage  edifice,  so  toil  fully  erected  day 
by  day  for  the  past  fifty  years  by  the  feverish  and  ambitious 
hands  of  shrill-voiced  lady  agitators,  is  now  occupied  by  the 
Tammany  Ring,  composed  of  hard-headed  and  experienced 
men.  When  they  vacate  the  premises  it  will  be  to  give  place 
to  a  rival  machine.  True,  it  is,  that  women  are  now  received 
into  the  political  party  fold;  but  as  servants,  not  as  masters. 
There  is  a  female  organization  attachment,  but  it  is  strictly  of 
the  old  orthodox  Tammany  brand;  the  vociferous  new  women 
are  sent  to  the  rear,  their  voices  must  not  be  too  loud,  there  is 
no  place  in  party  ranks  for  skirted  faddists,  nor  for  women  who 
want  to  lead  in  a  "cause"  or  "movement."  Silence  and  disci- 
pline are  the  rules  in  machine  organizations.  Tammany  and 
the  New  York  Republican  organization  have  had  published  a 
list  of  female  associate  leaders  for  each  assembly  district,  about 
thirty-five  in  all.  The  names  of  great  female  uplifters,  the 

408 


WOMAN    SUFFRAGE   IN   PRACTICE  409 

leaders,  as  they  foolishly  thought  themselves,  are  absent  from 
these  rolls,  where  may  be  read  the  names  of  those  whose  hus- 
bands and  brothers  will  carefully  transmit  to  them  the  orders 
from  headquarters.  Thus  ends  the  pipe  dream  of  the  suffra- 
gette "leaders"  that  they  would  some  day  walk  in,  and  take 
possession  of  the  comfortable  seats  of  the  mighty.  The  arro- 
gant conceit  of  a  bunch  of  foolish  women,  who  imagined  them- 
selves to  be  all-conquering,  has  received  its  quietus,  and  let  us 
be  grateful  accordingly.  Far  better  submit  to  the  plunderings 
of  the  old  rings,  than  to  suffer  from  the  antics  and  Bolshevism 
of  the  socialist  suffragette  combination. 

Passing  New  York,  where  the  evil  results  of  woman  suffrage 
are  only  just  beginning  to  show  themselves,  let  us  look  at  Col- 
orado, where  it  was  adopted  in  1892.  In  1908  Helen  Sumner 
went  to  that  State  to  investigate  the  results  of  fifteen  years  of 
female  voting.  She  was  favorable  to  the  cause  and  her  in- 
quisition was  backed  by  women.  The  results  were  published 
by  her  in  a  book  where  she  plainly  endeavors  to  be  impartial, 
notwithstanding  her  evident  suffragette  affiliations.  In  the 
hope  of  learning  something  of  the  moral  effect  of  the  fran- 
chise, she  made  thousands  of  inquiries,  without  eliciting  any- 
thing favorable,  except  that  voting  made  women  take  more 
interest  in  politics  than  before.  Miss  Sumner  considered  this 
an  advantage  and  she  puts  it  thus: 

"Thousands  vote;  and  to  every  one  of  these  thousands  the 
"ballot  means  a  little  broadening  in  the  outlook,  a  little  glimpse 
"of  wider  interest  than  pots  and  kettles,  trivial  scandal  and 
"bridge  whist."  ...  "A  closer  companionship  and  under- 
Standing  between  men  and  women." 

And  so  the  government  of  the  country  must  be  entrusted 
to  people  whose  chief  interests  in  life  are  pots  and  kettles, 
scandal,  and  bridge  whist.  "Poor  things,"  muses  Miss 
Sumner,  "they  are  so  lonesome,  and  they  take  no  interest  in 
cooking;  let  them  vote,  it  will  divert  their  minds."  Appar- 
ently she  has  no  pity  for  the  poor  men  folk,  who  must  pay 
in  high  taxes  and  indigestion  the  price  of  this  diversion.  But 


410      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE  UNITED   STATES 

why  stop  at  this  point;  the  merely  going  to  vote  will  only 
give  a  woman  a  temporary  jolt,  scarcely  equal  to  matching  a 
ribbon  at  the  store;  why  not  give  her  something  more  exciting; 
why  not  pass  a  law  permitting  all  women  to  practise  medicine 
or  to  drive  a  locomotive,  or  to  shoe  horses?  Only  a  compara- 
tively few  would  suffer,  and  it  would  give  the  dear  women  "a 
little  glimpse  of  wider  interest."  Or  to  be  fair  to  both  sexes, 
why  not  let  schoolboys  vote;  they  too  might  like  interesting 
"glimpses";  and  they  would  thus  become  accustomed  to  talk 
politics  with  mamma  and  sister;  never  mind  the  harm  to  the 
country,  it  is  big  and  long  suffering.  Now,  when  we  consider 
that  Miss  Sumner  is  probably  a  very  superior  woman,  and 
that  as  this  extract  shows,  she  has  no  idea  whatever  of  the 
significance  or  dignity  of  the  franchise,  we  may  judge  how 
far  her  less  developed  sisters  are  from  being  qualified  for  the 
exercise  of  the  vote. 

Let  us  consider  for  a  moment  what  kind  of  "glimpses  of 
interest  and  companionship"  the  Colorado  women  get  by  going 
into  politics.  Miss  Sumner 's  inquiries  did  not  lead  her  to 
believe  that  woman's  morals  were  injured,  or  her  affairs  neg- 
lected as  a  consequence  of  the  mere  act  of  voting.  Perhaps 
not;  that  large  class  of  either  very  docile  or  shrewd  women, 
who  march  to  the  polls  with  husband  or  father,  vote  as  he 
directs,  and  quickly  return  with  him,  cannot  be  said  to  have 
suffered  much  direct  harm  in  the  process;  nor  indeed  on  the 
other  hand  to  have  got  many  "glimpses  of  wider  interest." 
And  yet,  what  of  the  indirect  results?  Is  it  degrading  or  not 
to  act  a  lie  publicly  and  solemnly,  to  deliberately  trifle  with 
country  and  conscience,  as  one  does  by  voting  for  people  of 
whom  he  knows  nothing,  and  for  legislation  which  he  does 
not  thoroughly  understand?  Is  it  nothing  to  trifle  with  a 
weighty  obligation?  When  a  citizen  goes  to  the  polls  and 
votes,  does  he,  or  does  he  not,  in  effect  represent  and  declare, 
before  God  and  his  country,  that  he  has  investigated  the 
matter,  and  that  his  ballot  represents  his  solemn  and  true  con- 
viction? And  if  that  declaration  be  false,  if  he  has  no  solemn 


WOMAN    SUFFRAGE  IN   PRACTICE  411 

or  true  conviction  on  the  subject,  is  he,  or  is  he  not,  acting 
the  part  of  a  perjured  rascal  and  traitor,  and  can  his  conscience 
pass  through  that  ordeal  unscathed?  Here  is  food  for  thought 
for  many  a  male  voter  and  for  nearly  all  the  female  voters. 

Miss  Sumner  learned  out  there,  some  interesting  particulars 
of  the  "broadening  in  the  outlook"  and  the  new  "companion- 
ship" which  Colorado  women  get  from  exercising  the  suffrage; 
and  the  experience  must  have  astonished  some  of  the  decent 
ones  among  them  till  they  got  used  to  it.  Her  book  fairly 
reeks  with  the  tainted  atmosphere  of  female  corruption;  the 
whole  woman's  movement  there  was  steeped  in  moral  filth. 
Here  are  her  own  words  (p.  258): 

"Politics  in  Colorado  are  at  least  as  corrupt  as  in  other  states, 
and  the  woman  of  ideals  who  goes  into  political  life  for  reform  soon 
finds,  not  merely  that  she  is  working  in  the  mire,  but  that  she  is 
persona  non  grata  with  the  habitual  denizens  of  the  mire  and  with 
those  persons  who  profit  by  its  existence." 

Among  the  first  fruits  of  woman  suffrage  in  Colorado  seems 
to  have  been  the  development  of  a  big  batch  of  female  crim- 
inals. In  Arapahoe  County  in  1900  there  were  5284  fraudu- 
lent registrations  of  voters  of  which  3512  were  men  and  1772 
women.  Seventeen  hundred  female  criminals  in  one  county! 
There  must  have  been  a  considerable  "broadening  in  the  out- 
look" for  women  theretofore  accustomed  to  decent  homes; 
and  a  "closer  companionship"  with  rogues,  and  understanding 
of  their  devices  was  no  doubt  arrived  at.  In  fact  Colorado 
has  been  said  to  be  the  most  corrupt  electorate  in  the  United 
States.  Of  its  effects  there  United  States  Judge  Hailett,  a  resi- 
dent of  the  state,  said,  "if  it  were  to  be  done  over  again  the 
"people  of  Colorado  would  defeat  woman  suffrage  by  an  over- 
"whelming  majority."  It  stands  because  politicians  are  cowards 
and  unscrupulous,  and  Colorado  like  other  states  is  ruled  by 
politicians.  It  has  increased  political  corruption  in  the  state. 
In  1905  about  thirty  men  were  sent  to  jail  in  Denver  and  fined, 
and  in  Pueblo  there  were  257  indictments,  all  for  election 


412      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES 

frauds.  It  has  not  diminished  political  rowdyism.  In  an 
article  in  the  Outlook  in  Januuary  1906,  Lawrence  Lewis, 
who  studied  the  subject  for  several  years  in  Colorado,  says 
that  since  woman  suffrage  went  into  effect,  there  has  been  a 
continuation  of  the  former  frauds,  drunkenness,  fights  and 
arrests  for  crimes.  Referring  to  the  notorious  election 
knaveries  committed  by  both  parties  in  November  1904,  the 
second  year  of  female  voting,  he  says: 

"In  Denver  neither  in  November  1904  nor  for  twenty  years  has 
there  been  an  election  that  decent  citizens  of  either  party  would  un- 
hesitatingly assert  was  anywhere  near  on  the  square." 

He  further  says,  that  in  the  cities  such  as  Denver,  Pueblo, 
etc.,  a  great  number  of  fallen  women  vote  under  the  control  of 
the  bosses,  often  under  compulsion. 

"It  is  safe  to  say  that  under  ordinary  conditions  and  under  ordi- 
nary police  administration,  ninety  per  cent  of  the  fallen  women  in 
our  cities  are  compelled  to  register  and  to  vote  at  least  once  for  the 
candidates  favored  by  the  police  or  sheriff  officers.  But  in  ordinary 
times  these  women  are  also  compelled  to  repeat.  ...  A  former 
city  detective  or  fine  collector  in  Pueblo  has  been  tried,  convicted 
and  sentenced  to  a  term  of  years  in  the  penitentiary  for  compelling 
an  unfortunate  woman  to  repeat  her  registration.  He  is  under  further 
indictments  for  compelling  the  same  woman  to  forge  fictitious  names 
by  the  hundreds  to  district  registration  sheets,  all  of  which  names 
were  to  be  voted  on  election  day  by  other  fallen  women  from  whom 
the  fellow  collected  fines." 

Other  similar  instances  are  given  by  the  writer  in  this  same 
article.  And  he  adds  that: 

"It  would  indeed  appear  that  the  average  character  of  the  actual 
voting  body  has  either  remained  unchanged  or  has  been  slightly 
lowered  as  regards  actual  political  intelligence  and  discrimination." 

Also  this: 

"We  have  practically  (in  Colorado)  all  the  forms  of  graft  and 
misgovernment  found  elsewhere.  Woman's  suffrage  seems  to  have 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  IN  PRACTICE  413 

been  neither  a  preventive,  an  alleviator,  nor  a  cure  for  any  of  our 
political  ills." 

Only  about  one-third  of  the  Colorado  women  actually  vote, 
and  a  great  many  of  them  flatly  and  indignantly  refuse  to  do 
so.  Referring  to  an  election  in  Colorado,  1910,  Miss  Seawell 

says: 

"At  the  election  in  May,  1910,  the  sale  of  women's  votes  was  open 
and  shameless.  At  each  of  the  2 1 1  voting  precincts  in  Denver,  there 
were  four  women  working  in  the  interests  of  the  saloon-keepers. 
These  women  had  previously  visited  the  headquarters  of  the  saloon- 
keepers and  openly  accepted  each  a  ten  dollar  bill  for  her  services. 
In  this  and  other  ways  Mr.  Barry  says  he  saw  about  $17,000  paid 
to  women  voters,  who  apparently  made  no  effort  to  conceal  it,  as 
indeed  it  would  have  been  useless.  .  .  .  Such  wholesale  corruption 
has  probably  never  been  approximated  in  any  city  in  the  United 
States." 

Robert  H.  Fuller  says  that: 

"Some  of  the  worst  election  frauds  ever  perpetrated  in  this  coun- 
try marked  the  Colorado  election  of  1904.  The  character  and  aver- 
age intelligence  of  the  voting  population,  as  a  whole,  have  not  im- 
proved in  the  states  where  women  vote;  there  has  been  no  improve- 
ment in  the  fitness  or  capacity  of  the  elected  public  officials."  (Gov- 
ernment by  the  People.) 

Miss  Seawell  says  that  in  the  election  case  of  Bonynge  vs. 
Shajroth,  in  the  First  Congressional  District  of  Colorado,  con- 
taining the  City  of  Denver  (Second  Session  of  the  Fifty- 
eighth  Congress,  H.  R.  report  No.  2705),  it  appeared  that  out 
of  9000  ballots  in  the  boxes  there  were  6000  fraudulent  ones 
which  had  been  prepared  by  three  men  and  by  one  woman. 
One  woman  poll  clerk  voted  three  times;  forgeries  were  com- 
mitted by  the  women;  two  women  arranged  to  have  a  fight 
started  so  as  to  distract  the  attention  of  the  watchers  at  the 
polls,  while  a  third  woman  stuffed  the  ballot-boxes.  Because 
of  this  exposure,  Shafroth  resigned. 

Moral  stimulus  there  certainly  could  be  none  in  contact  with 


414      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES 

this  fraud  organization  which  goes  by  the  name  of  politics  in 
Colorado.  Of  mental  stimulus  and  "broadening  in  the  out- 
look" thus  to  be  miraculously  achieved  by  the  mere  process  of 
selecting  one  out  of  two  scamps  for  public  office,  Miss  Sumner 
was  reluctantly  compelled  to  admit,  that  after  all  in  actual 
result  she  found  but  little.  Few  people  were  able  to  give  her 
any  clear  reason  why  they  favored  woman  suffrage  nor  why 
they  opposed  it.  It  seems  likely  that  all  the  mental  stimulus 
the  Colorado  women  ever  got  by  entering  the  mire  of  politics, 
they  could  have  obtained  at  less  expense  to  their  delicacy  and 
good  manners,  by  taking  part  in  church  fairs,  golfing,  garden- 
ing, playing  base-ball,  walking,  lawn  tennis,  singing  schools, 
literary  societies,  spelling  bees,  horseback  riding  or  dancing. 
And  if  some  of  the  precious  creatures  must  at  any  rate  be 
kept  amused  while  the  rest  of  us  work,  it  would  be  less  ex- 
pensive to  the  state  to  provide  these  amusements  at  state 
charge  than  to  permit  them  to  divert  their  minds  by  playing 
with  our  national  welfare,  and  using  poor  old  Uncle  Sam  as 
the  object  on  which  to  try  their  various  experiments  in  po- 
litical quackery. 

Glancing  over  the  New  York  Evening  Post  of  August 
27,  1919,  the  writer  was  interested  to  read  that  a  young  lady 
politician,  convicted  in  1916  of  a  murder  during  a  political 
quarrel  at  Thompson  Falls,  the  victim  being  one  Thomas,  also 
a  politician,  had  been  paroled  from  the  Montana  State  Peni- 
tentiary. It  is  reassuring  to  know  that  a  suffragette  murderess 
actually  risks  three  years  confinement  (softened  no  doubt  by 
sympathy)  in  Montana,  the  first  woman  suffrage  state,  and 
the  one  who  gave  us  our  first  lady  "congressman." 

The  plain  truth  is,  that  the  entry  of  women  into  politics 
has  brought  no  promise  to  the  American  people  of  any  prac- 
tical help  in  any  of  their  real  problems.  The  whole  movement 
bears  the  stamp  of  crudeness  and  mediocrity.  Its  ideals  and 
operations  have  been  low  and  its  leaders  lacking  in  every 
quality  of  greatness.  Part  of  its  success  is  no  doubt  due  to 
the  love  of  novelty,  and  the  inability  in  most  minds  to 


WOMAN    SUFFRAGE  IN   PRACTICE  415 

distinguish  what  is  really  progress  from  what  is  merely 
blind  or  foolish  experiment.  To  many  superficial  people 
there  is  a  fascination  attached  to  everything  which  smacks 
of  revolution;  because  in  the  past  an  occasional  revolt 
has  been  justified,  they  think  it  is  heroic  and  noble  to  take 
part  in  any  political  rumpus.  But  nothing  either  noble 
or  heroic  was  ever  in  or  behind  the  woman  suffrage 
movement,  or  has  ever  come  out  of  it.  The  really  great  po- 
litical agitations  have  all  produced  something  worth  while/  in 
orators,  leaders  or  authorship;  see,  for  example,  the  chronicles 
of  the  American  Revolution  or  the  abolition  movement;  even 
the  French  Revolution,  in  its  compass  from  Rousseau  to  Na- 
poleon, evolved  some  greatness  to  offset  the  mass  of  rubbish 
and  infamy  which  it  vomited  forth.  Its  political  incapables 
though  unfit  for  any  good  constructive  work  were  at  least  able 
to  talk  and  write  with  effect;  they  drew  attractive  political 
pictures  and  proposals,  and  could  promise  and  speculate  in  a 
way  to  arouse  interest.  Not  so  the  suffragists.  Among  po- 
litical agitators  they  stand  supreme  for  dullness  and  stupidity. 
Looking  at  their  literature  one  is  immediately  struck  by  its 
cheapness,  by  its  utter  lack  of  noble  and  patriotic  sentiments, 
by  the  lack  of  appeal  to  broad  and  elevating  motives.  We 
have  had  thousands  of  suffragist  speeches,  and  tons  of  printed 
literature,  and  after  all,  what  have  they  or  what  has  their 
movement  offered  to  the  nation  or  to  the  world?  Nothing, 
absolutely  nothing.  The  movement  has  not  produced  one  idea 
worthy  of  the  consideration  of  a  well-educated  and  sensible 
man;  it  has  apparently  been  motived  by  vanity,  love  of  no- 
toriety and  power,  and  characterized  by  hysteria;  the  proposals 
advanced  have  been  pilfered  from  socialists  and  other  fanatics; 
the  oratory  and  literature  of  the  suffragists  is  characterized  by 
flippant  insincerity  and  unscrupulousness ;  progressive  legis- 
lation in  which  they  had  no  perceptible  part  is  boldly  claimed 
as  their  work;  their  leaders  often  display  dense  ignorance  of 
the  political  history  of  the  country,  and  a  sad  lack  of  capacity 
to  understand  sound  political  principles  or  to  sympathize  with 


41 6      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

anything  beyond  the  popular  smartness  of  the  hour.  The 
personnel  of  their  leaders  has  been  commonplace  and  unin- 
teresting. Some  of  them  have  been  sincere  fanatics;  most  of 
them  are  political  adventuresses.  Dr.  C.  L.  Dana  says  of  the 
movement:  "It  is  adopted  as  a  kind  of  religion,  a  holy  cult  of 
"self  and  sex,  expressed  by  a  passion  to  get  what  they  want. 
"There  is  no  program,  no  promise,  only  ecstatic  assertions  that 
"they  ought  to  have  it  and  must  have  it,  and  of  the  wonders 
"that  will  follow  its  possession.  .  .  .  Measured  by  fair  rules 
/'of  intelligence  testing,  I  should  say  that  the  average  zealot  in 
"the  cause  has  about  the  mental  age  of  eleven."  (Letter  to 
Miss  Chittenden.)  During  the  war  with  Germany  the  pa- 
triotism of  many  of  the  leaders  was  doubtful,  and  their  associ- 
ates suspicious.  And  during  the  progress  of  the  whole 
agitation,  there  has  been  no  suggestion  of  any  effort  to  be 
made  by  those  women  or  their  followers  to  stop  political  graft 
or  corruption,  or  to  raise  the  standard  of  politics  or  of  legis- 
lation. They  have  had  the  vote  at  two  annual  elections  in 
the  great  state  of  New  York;  what  do  they  offer  there? 
Nothing.  Who  are  their  standard  bearers  and  who  has  benefited 
by  their  vote?  The  most  notorious  boss  and  the  most  noted 
and  powerful  political  machine  in  the  world. 

The  strongest  proof,  however,  of  the  utter  unworthiness  of 
the  cause  of  female  suffrage  and  the  meanness  of  its  motives 
is  furnished  by  the  public  declarations  of  its  female  advocates. 
Many  of  these  addresses  are  flavored  with  half  contemptuous, 
half  vicious  and  altogether  impudent  and  vile  sneers  at  men, 
and  assertions  of  masculine  inferiority,  which  could  not  have 
been  readily  displayed  but  by  those  familiar  with  households 
whose  men  habitually  receive  at  home  but  scant  respect. 
Those  scoffs  at  men  are  accompanied  by  a  great  show  of  half 
hysterical,  all  gushing,  admiration  for  the  mystic  excellences 
of  contemporary  women,  and  of  contempt  for  those  of  the 
last  generation;  in  fact  these  female  reform  leaders  usually 
assume  a  top-lofty  attitude  of  disdain  for  our  ancestors  gen- 
erally, their  work  and  their  ideals.  Each  of  them  is  of  course 


WOMAN    SUFFRAGE   IN   PRACTICE  417 

filled  with  wonder  at  her  own  superior  wisdom.  One  cannot 
help  suspecting  that  most  of  this  display  of  crudity  and 
egotism  is  due  to  the  fact  that  much  of  the  suffragist  work 
was  done  by  newly  fledged  graduates  of  female  colleges,  where 
uppish  young  women,  largely  of  the  type  who  dislike  home 
duties,  or  sometimes  it  is  feared  work  of  any  kind,  are  sent  by 
their  parents  either  to  get  rid  of  them  for  a  while,  or  because  it 
is  the  thing  to  do,  or  to  fit  them  for  teaching.  As  from  the 
college  president  down,  nothing  of  actual  life  is  known,  or  ever 
was  known,  within  the  college  walls,  where  everything  needed, 
buildings,  endowments,  salaries,  books,  instruments  and  sus- 
tenance, is  provided  by  someone  else,  one  can  readily  imagine 
the  quality  of  the  stuff  expounded  in  these  places  under  the 
pretence  of  instruction  in  sociology,  politics  and  economics, 
and  greedily  swallowed  by  the  extremely  silly  and  conceited 
undergraduates.  On  leaving  college,  the  best  or  most  for- 
tunate of  these  girls,  aided  by  good  luck  or  guided  by  wise 
parents,  go  to  work  at  some  useful  occupation,  and  begin  to 
get  real  lessons  in  life  followed  usually  by  still  higher  instruc- 
tion as  wives  and  mothers  later  on.  Of  the  lazy,  rattle- 
brained, and  otherwise  good  for  nothing,  a  certain  percentage 
find  their  way  every  year  into  the  field  of  female  suffrage  agi- 
tation. Some  scraps  of  knowledge  they  have  picked  up  in  the 
class-room,  the  value  of  which  they  enormously  exaggerate  in 
their  own  minds,  and  give  themselves  intellectual  airs  in  con- 
sequence. Many  of  them  lack  sense  or  judgment  sufficient  to 
enable  them  to  appreciate  the  immense  importance  of  the  busi- 
ness world,  the  great  mental  capacity  required  in  dealing  with 
problems  of  commerce,  manufacturing  and  finance,  and  feel 
a  certain  contempt  for  business  people  who  take  no  part  in 
the  literary  and  artistic  patter  of  the  day,  or  who  lack  taste 
for  trashy  new  poetry  and  rubbishy  modern  novels.  The  par- 
ticipation of  this  class  in  the  "movement"  is  prompted  partly  by 
morbid  desire  to  associate  with  men;  and  partly  by  vanity  and 
a  longing  for  notoriety,  and  for  opportunity  to  display  their 
own  imagined  powers.  Fools,  being  afraid  of  no  social  or 


41 8      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

political  problems,  walk  in  where  angels  fear  to  tread;  and 
it  is  no  unusual  thing  to  see  charming  and  prudent  women 
reduced  to  meek  silence  by  these  female  blatherskites,  with 
their  irrelevant  harangues  about  primitive  men,  cave  dwellers, 
man-made  law,  dual-sexed  insects  and  female  spiders  who 
devour  their  mates.  If  the  reader  doubts  that  such  have  been 
of  the  class  of  female  suffrage  deliverances  it  will  be  because 
he  has  been  fortunate  enough  not  to  have  heard  many  of  them. 
Part  of  the  success  of  the  woman  suffrage  agitation  is  due  to 
the  use  of  money.  Just  as  the  accumulations  of  the  rich  are 
often  poured  by  their  sons  into  channels  of  profligate  folly,  so 
by  their  widows  and  daughters  they  are  often  turned  into 
ditches  of  political  folly.  In  countries  like  England  and  the 
United  States,  where  large  and  small  fortunes  are  constantly 
being  accumulated  by  hard-working  men,  and  large  portions 
thereof  bequeathed  to  female  relatives,  there  will  always  be 
found  a  certain  proportion  of  the  latter  who  lack  the  wisdom 
to  properly  use  their  surplus  cash;  some  waste  it  shamefully; 
some  lose  it  to  sharpers;  some  bestow  it  upon  worthless  and 
sham  benevolences;  some  squander  it  to  gain  notoriety.  One 
carj  scarcely  imagine  any  "cause"  or  "movement"  so  absurd 
that  people  cannot  be  found  to  believe  in  it,  or  to  pretend  to 
do  so,  and  to  subscribe  to  it  if  properly  approached  and 
tempted  by  visions  of  celebrity.  For  the  woman  suffrage  agi- 
tation sums  aggregating  very  considerable  have  been  thus  se- 
cured in  England  and  America.  With  this  cash  a  number  of 
poorer  women  can  be  employed  to  do  propaganda  work  and  to 
perpetrate  acts  of  lawlessness.  In  England  they  assaulted  cab- 
inet officials  and  others;  they  used  dynamite,  they  smashed 
windows,  they  broke  up  public  meetings  by  violence,  they 
practised  rowdyism  and  blackguardism,  they  attempted  even 
murder.  Here,  they  have  allied  themselves  with  anarchists 
and  socialists,  enemies  of  the  republic;  they  have  lawlessly  in- 
terrupted public  meetings;  they  publicly  affronted  the  Presi- 
dent at  the  Arlington  Hotel  on  April  i5th,  1910,  a  thing  never 
before  done  in  the  history  of  the  country;  and  they  subse- 


WOMAN    SUFFRAGE   IN   PRACTICE  419 

quently  insulted  another  President,  by  picketing  the  White 
House  in  an  offensive  manner  for  weeks  together.  They  jus- 
tify this  by  saying  that  they  were  in  earnest,  and  ready  to 
suffer  for  the  cause;  and  the  same  has  been  said  by  other 
fanatical  criminals.  Their  course  has  been  such  as  would 
have  discredited  even  a  good  cause  in  any  field  but  that  of 
politics,  where  vile  and  dastardly  methods  are  customary  and 
considered  appropriate. 

Up  to  a  few  years  ago  the  politicians  were  accustomed  to 
ridicule  the  woman  suffrage  agitation,  and  for  years  made  it  a 
standing  joke  at  the  various  state  capitals;  thus  it  was  for- 
merly the  well  known  practice  of  the  New  York  state  legisla- 
tors to  deceive  and  humbug  the  woman  suffrage  managers  by 
passing  one  of  their  measures  in  one  house,  with  the  under- 
standing that  it  would  be  defeated  in  the  other.  But  as  soon 
as  the  movement  began  to  make  real  headway,  the  politicians 
began  to  favor  it,  seeing  the  chance  of  advantage  to  them- 
selves from  that  course.  The  only  opinion  those  gentry  fear  or 
respect  is  that  backed  by  organized  force  or  easy  money. 
The  suffragists  organized  and  raised  immense  amounts  of 
cash;  their  opponents  failed  to  do  either  and  almost  ignored 
the  movement.  Now,  reasoned  the  politicians,  should  the 
suffrage  proposals  fail  nothing  will  be  lost  by  having  supported 
them;  and  should  they  succeed  we  will  have  a  still  more 
credulous,  corrupt  and  easily  managed  constituency  than 
before,  and  may  hope  for  the  gratitude  and  friendship  of  the 
suffrage  leaders.  And  now  that  in  sixteen  states  women  have 
the  vote,  the  politicians  on  both  sides  strongly  favor  woman 
suffrage,  and  are  one  and  all  ready  to  swear  everlasting  devo- 
tion to  the  cause  of  woman.  The  presidential  aspirants  dare 
no  longer  oppose  it.  So  that  judging  the  future  by  the  past, 
the  cause  of  woman  suffrage  has  a  fair  chance  of  winning  in 
all  or  most  of  the  states  of  the  Union.  It  certainly  will  do  so 
unless  there  be  a  strong  organized  effort  to  defeat  its  progress, 
of  which  at  present  no  signs  are  visible.  In  the  political  world 
the  most  powerful  forces  are  money  and  fanaticism.  The  effect 


42  O      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

of  money  is  familiar  to  us  all  every  day.  The  effect  of  fanati- 
cism is  equally  familiar  to  readers  of  history.  It  produced  the 
Mohammedan  Empire,  the  Crusades,  and  the  Spanish  In- 
quisition, and  assisted  in  the  downfall  of  Spain;  it  furthered 
the  Mormon  political  sway;  the  violent  abolition  of  slavery; 
the  prohibition  movement;  the  woman  suffrage  agitation  and 
Bolshevism.  That  female  suffrage  is  the  last  important  step 
in  the  downward  march  of  the  American  democracy  is  the 
belief  of  the  writer  of  this  book.  If  at  this  point  the  reaction 
does  not  begin,  the  democratic  regime  in  this  country  is  doomed 
to  final  failure,  and  even  to  possible  overthrow  at  the  hands  of 
red  radicalism. 


CHAPTER   XXX 

A  PROPERLY  QUALIFIED  ELECTORATE  WILL  REMOVE  THE  CAUSES 
OF  THE  PREVALENT  POPULAR  DISSATISFACTION  AND  SERVE 
AS  A  DEFENSE  AGAINST  THE  PRESENT  MENACE  OF 
BOLSHEVISM. 

THE  institution  of  unlimited  suffrage  is  favorable  to  the 
various  radical,  anti-social  movements  which  for  convenience 
sake  may  here  be  conjointly  designated  as  Bolshevism.  It  is 
thus  favorable  in  three  important  particulars,  one  being  a  mat- 
ter of  principle  and  the  two  others  matters  of  practice.  The 
error  in  principle  is  the  adoption  of  the  theory  of  numbers  as  the 
sole  source  of  political  authority,  in  direct  disregard  of  the 
just  claims  of  property  and  property  rights,  and  resultingly 
to  the  detriment  of  efficiency,  justice  and  civilization.  That  the 
scheme  of  government  by  mere  numbers  is  Bolshevik  in  charac- 
ter is  plain  enough.  It  had  its  origin  in  the  French  Terror  which 
was  a  Bolshevik  regime.  It  accords  no  direct  representation 
or  place  in  government  to  property  or  the  rights  of  property; 
which  are  left  to  take  their  chance  in  the  shuffle  of  politics. 
As  long  as  property  is  deprived  of  its  proper  place  in  the  consti- 
tution of  our  government  and  is  denied  representation  in  the 
electorate,  it  is  an  alien,  without  security  for  its  existence;  and 
only  here  by  sufferance.  Bolshevism,  which  actually  deprives 
private  property  of  all  right  to  exist,  goes  further  than  unlimited 
suffrage  which  merely  ignores  it,  but  both  are  upon  the  same 
track,  and  move  in  the  same  direction.  The  second  particular 
in  which  manhood  suffrage  has  favored  Bolshevism  is  by 
corrupting  and  degrading  the  operations  of  American  democ- 
racy and  bringing  into  disrepute  as  has  been  shown.  And 
third,  it  has  aided  Bolshevism  by  admitting  an  anti-social 
element  into  the  electorate  and  thus  decreasing  the  offensive 

421 


422      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

and  defensive  power  of  the  democratic  regime,  as  has  also 
been  shown. 

And  now  that  we  are  under  the  menace  of  Bolshevism,  let 
us  for  one  moment  consider  the  extent  and  the  character  of  that 
menace.  It  has  seized  a  large  part  of  Russia;  it  has  found  a 
lodging  in  Germany,  France,  Italy,  Spain  and  the  United 
States,  and  threatens  every  democratic  nation  where  democracy 
is  inefficient.  It  is  an  organized  and  widespread  attempt  at 
the  destruction  of  property  and  of  all  who  own  property;  of 
society  and  civilization  and  of  all  who  support  society  and 
civilization.  It  is  not  a  new  or  a  momentary  phenomenon. 
Though  operating  under  new  names  it  is  as  old  and 
persistent  as  ignorance  and  brutality.  Over  five  centuries  ago 
it  appeared  in  England  in  Wat  Tyler's  insurrection  identical 
in  spirit  with  the  French  Revolutionary  Terror  which  from 
1789  to  1798  ravaged  France  and  has  been  the  source  of  nearly 
all  her  subsequent  misfortunes.  By  its  violent  actions  and 
reactions  it  became  the  indirect  yet  certain  cause  of  the  des- 
potic rule  and  constant  wars  of  the  time  of  Napoleon  I.  and 
of  the  Franco-Prussian  war  of  1870,  which  left  France  again 
almost  ruined;  and  it  reappeared  in  the  horrors  of  the  Paris 
commune  in  1871.  Let  not  the  reader  of  moderate  means  and 
large  selfishness  solace  himself  with  the  thought  that,  should  it 
obtain  here,  though  our  great  capitalists  may  suffer,  he  will 
escape.  The  finish  of  capitalists  is  the  end  of  capital;  and 
the  end  of  capital  is  the  finish  of  us  all.  And  the  reader's 
interest  in  this  matter  measured  by  the  extent  of  his  personal 
peril  is  probably  nearly  equal  to  that  of  any  of  his  richer  neigh- 
bors. In  France  in  1793  the  Terrorists  spared  no  one  who  was 
respectable.  The  only  safety  was  to  go  in  rags  or  to  join  the 
revolutionary  army.  People  were  slain  because  they  were 
clergymen  or  nuns;  because  they  were  prosperous;  because 
their  friends  were  prosperous;  because  they  were  conservative 
in  opinion  or  well  dressed;  because  they  were  religious;  because 
they  were  suspected  of  any  of  these  things.  Some  of  the  Reds 
of  that  day  were  planning  to  butcher  half  of  France,  when 


REMEDY  FOR  POPULAR  UNREST  AND   BOLSHEVISM        423 

stopped  by  Napoleon's  timely  usurpation.  The  Bolsheviki  of 
today  are  if  possible  more  ignorant,  cruel,  brutal  and  murder- 
ous than  the  French  radicals  of  a  century  ago.  It  is  their 
declared  intention  to  do  away  with  all  but  the  laboring  classes, 
who  they  say  should  alone  enjoy  the  fruits  of  the  earth.  They 
repudiate  all  private  property  rights,  and  consider  property 
owners,  great  and  small,  as  public  enemies.  The  right  to  own 
and  hold  private  property  is  therefore  now  openly  and  fiercely 
challenged  throughout  the  world,  and  the  challenge  must  be 
accepted  just  as  Germany's  challenge  was  accepted.  The  en- 
tire structure  of  our  civilization  is  endangered  by  this  attack. 
Without  private  property  neither  the  home  nor  the  family  can 
exist;  when  private  property  is  abolished  chaos  will  come 
again. 

Bolshevism  has  obtained  a  lodgment  in  the  United  States. 
We  must  disabuse  our  minds  of  the  notion  that  this  is  a  foreign 
menace  which  can  be  got  rid  of  by  deporting  a  hundred  or  a 
few  hundred  aliens  a  year.  Bolshevism  is  a  theory;  a  state 
of  mind  likely  to  appear  in  any  race  of  people  under  certain 
circumstances.  The  so-called  Independent  Workers  of  the 
World  (I.W.W.s)  are  largely  native  Americans.  Under  the 
present  or  any  other  social  system  including  the  ownership 
of  private  property,  the  capable,  saving  and  industrious  will 
have,  and  the  others  will  lack;  and  as  those  who  lack  are 
frequently  deficient  in  morals  and  judgment  as  well  as  in 
prudence  and  industry,  there  will  be  envy,  covetousness  and 
discontent;  which  being  joined  to  a  profound  ignorance  of 
economic  law,  will  produce  Bolshevism.  All  these  elements 
are  here  in  America,  where  the  enemies  of  society  have  some- 
times shown  themselves  in  force,  even  in  the  last  century;  for 
instance,  in  Shay's  rebellion  in  Massachusetts  in  the  year 
1790.  Heretofore,  their  numbers  have  been  small,  owing  to 
our  peculiar  circumstances,  notably  our  immense  land  offer- 
ings to  all  comers;  but  times  have  changed,  and  American 
Bolshevism  is  here  under  conditions  which  make  it  a  serious 
menace. 


424      POPULAR   MISGOVERN MENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

Let  not  the  reader  fool  himself  with  the  prophecy  that  the 
spirit  of  Bolshevism  will  disappear  from  Europe  with  the  ad- 
vent of  spelling  books  and  newspapers  into  the  homes  of 
European  laborers,  artisans  and  peasants.  Quite  the  con- 
trary. As  well  expect  good  family  morals  to  come  from  read- 
ing obscene  literature,  as  expect  good  business  or  political 
principles  to  issue  from  most  of  the  rubbish  printed  by  the 
decadents  of  today.  The  Bolshevik  leaders  are  often  literary 
men.  It  is  not  the  lack  of  spelling  and  reading,  but  the  want  of 
sound  economic  principles  that  characterizes  the  assassins  of 
Society;  and  the  only  school  which  provides  popular  instruc- 
tion in  true  economics  is  the  school  of  business,  which  Bol- 
shevism is  determined  utterly  to  destroy. 

Neither  must  we  count  on  Bolshevism  dying  out  of  itself 
here,  for  lack  of  congenial  soil  or  atmosphere.  People  love 
to  imagine  miracles,  and  we  hear  a  lot  of  nonsense  about 
America's  wonderful  power  of  assimilating  foreigners;  as  if 
there  was  some  marvelous  quality  in  our  air  to  change  the 
ideas  and  disperse  the  prejudices  of  immigrants.  The  fact 
is,  that  many  of  the  so-called  American  qualities  are  merely 
such  human  characteristics  as  develop  everywhere  under  con- 
ditions of  well-repaid  industry.  The  acquisition  of  property 
operates  very  quickly  in  every  country,  to  modify  the  habits 
and  character  of  any  man  previously  poor;  and  the  real  cause 
of  the  personal  changes  referred  to  under  the  phrase  "national 
assimilation"  is  material  prosperity.  In  this  new  and  open 
country,  just  as  in  Australia  and  South  America,  there  has 
been  great  opportunity  to  turn  energy  into  cash;  and  the 
foreigners  whom  we  readily  assimilated  were  those  who  made 
money,  and  became  very  like  prosperous  Americans.  They 
have  been  educated  in  the  business  school,  and  they  will  never 
be  Bolshevists.  But  the  class  of  immigrants  who  remain 
paupers  will  not  be  so  easily  converted  to  a  doctrine  which 
offers  them  nothing;  and  they  will  find  leaders  in  the  group 
which,  though  acquainted  with  books,  is  inefficient  in  business, 
unsuccessful  and  discontented.  And  the  pauperized,  defeated, 


REMEDY   FOR  POPULAR  UNREST   AND   BOLSHEVISM         425 

shiftless  classes  of  Americans  are  likely  to  turn  to  Bolshevism, 
for  the  same  reasons  as  foreigners  under  the  same  circum- 
stances. Men  who  are  failures  in  life,  no  matter  what  their 
nationality,  are  not  to  be  trusted  to  do  justice  to  the  successful 
ones,  nor  to  vote  to  protect  property  or  property  rights. 
Wherever  the  principles  of  political  economy  are  not  under- 
stood, there  is  a  field  for  Bolshevism;  and  they  are  not  under- 
stood by  the  working  classes  in  the  United  States.  The  propa- 
ganda of  organized  discontent  is  very  active  among  us;  and 
its  activities  are  not  likely  to  diminish.  Thousands  of  Ameri- 
cans, disappointed  in  life,  are  also  disappointed  at  seeing  their 
government  in  the  clutches  of  an  oligarchy  of  sordid  politi- 
cians. And  these  conditions  may  grow  worse  with  the  growth 
and  expansion  of  industry  and  commerce,  with  the  increase  of 
legislative  meddling  with  business,  and  the  increasing  tendency 
of  business  acting  in  self-protection  to  endeavor  to  improperly 
control  legislation  and  politics.  If  nothing  be  done  to  remedy 
this  state  of  things  who  knows  how  many  Americans  will  be 
found  to  be  on  the  side  of  the  Bolsheviki  when  the  time  comes 
for  a  settlement  of  the  question  between  us  and  them? 

There  is  cause  for  a  serious  apprehension  of  an  attack  by 
organized  Bolshevism  upon  our  democracy  if  proper  measures 
are  not  adopted  to  further  protect  property  rights,  and  if  the 
present  political  oligarchical  misgovernment  is  permitted  to 
continue  unchecked.  In  that  day  it  may  be  that  in  the  large 
cities  the  enemies  of  the  social  order  will  be  championed  by 
one  or  two  yellow  newspapers,  and  their  cause  be  taken  up 
by  one  of  the  political  organizations.  The  result  might  be 
such  as  to  make  the  property  classes  regret  their  apathy.  The 
material  for  an  efficient  radical  political  army  already  exists 
in  the  organized  controllables  who  now  manage  the  primaries 
under  direction  of  the  bosses;  in  the  politically  unattached 
hordes  of  irresponsible  city  voters;  in  the  village  loafers;  in 
the  immense  number  of  irresponsible  women  politically  and 
economically  ignorant  and  easily  moved  to  violent  emotion. 
There  are  at  this  moment  in  every  city  in  the  United  States 


426      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

hundreds  of  writers,  school  teachers,  and  college  educated 
youths  of  both  sexes,  superficial,  fluent  of  speech,  ambitious, 
ready  for  anything;  and  as  ignorant  of  economic  law  as  a 
common  laborer.  Of  such  would  be  the  leaders  of  the  Bol- 
sheviki  movement.  On  the  other  hand  the  able  youth  of 
America,  the  well-educated,  gifted  young  business  men,  those 
of  high  ideals,  patriotic,  disinterested,  energetic;  those  of  the 
class  upon  whom  every  country  should  rely  for  its  working 
leadership  in  civics,  are  mostly  unavailable  to  defend  society  in 
such  an  emergency,  because  they  are  untrained  in  public  affairs, 
unknown  to  the  public;  have  been  kept  in  the  rear  out  of 
sight;  not  permitted  to  seek  public  employment;  the  places 
they  ought  to  fill  occupied  by  the  cheap  tools  of  the  machine; 
most  of  them  indifferent  to  politics;  despising  its  incidents; 
scarcely  willing  to  vote.  From  them  no  quick  help  could  be 
expected  in  such  a  case. 

As  for  the  political  oligarchical  managers  at  present  in 
power,  from  them  no  aid  can  ever  be  expected  in  any  good 
cause.  They  are  mere  time-servers.  In  fact  the  politician  is 
the  natural  enemy  of  the  propertied  and  capitalistic  class. 
Already,  there  are  plain  indications  that  the  universal  suffrage 
governing  oligarchy  stands  ready  to  sacrifice  American  prop- 
erty rights.  For  example,  the  Vice  President  of  the  United 
States  once  said  in  a  public  speech  in  the  hearing  of  the 
writer  that  there  is  no  natural  right  in  children  to  inherit  from 
their  parents.  Here  is  a  glimpse  of  a  politician's  heaven; 
where  all  the  property  in  this  country  will  be  at  the  behest 
of  these  organized  brigands.  In  fact,  a  step  in  the  direction  of 
confiscation  of  private  property  has  already  been  taken,  both 
here  and  in  England,  by  the  enactment  of  the  lately  invented 
Inheritance  Tax  Laws.  Consider  how  that  so-called  tax  can 
be  made  a  ready  means  of  Mexicanizing  the  nation  by  confis- 
cating a  large  part  of  its  accumulated  capital,  and  by  destroy- 
ing at  the  same  time  much  of  the  incentive  to  future  accumu- 
lations. A  nation  which  is  supported  by  inheritance  taxes  is 
like  a  spendthrift  living  off  his  capital  whose  ultimate  ruin  is 


REMEDY   FOR   POPULAR   UNREST   AND   BOLSHEVISM         427 

therefore  sure.  Let  a  large  fortune  pass  three  times  through 
the  Probate  Court,  which  might  easily  happen  in  twenty  years, 
and  about  half  of  it  is  gone  in  taxes,  to  be  dissipated,  squan- 
dered and  stolen  by  politicians.  The  taste  of  blood  is  good 
to  a  hungry  beast.  After  despoiling  large  fortunes  they  are 
already  beginning  to  attack  smaller  ones.  A  full  treasury 
encourages  waste,  and  so  it  goes  on.  How  many  of  the  ne'er 
do  wells  whom  universal  suffrage  calls  to  the  polls,  are  aware 
or  could  possibly  be  made  to  realize,  the  value  of  stored  up 
capital,  or  to  understand  that  the  accumulations  of  money 
called  private  fortunes  which  are  thus  being  broken  up  and 
wasted,  are  the  only  sources  from  which  enterprise  is  daily 
being  fed,  and  millions  of  workmen  and  workwomen  employed 
and  paid? 

Under  a  universal  suffrage  regime,  government  leadership 
in  opposition  to  Bolshevism  cannot  be  relied  upon,  and  with- 
out such  leadership  it  is  doubtful  if  proper  resistance  to  Bol- 
shevism can  be  expected  at  the  hands  of  the  American  people. 
They  are  utterly  destitute  of  political  power,  are  without  organ- 
ization and  guidance  or  the  material  for  either.  They  have 
never  been  able  to  effectually  resist  the  bosses;  politically  they 
are  a  lot  of  sheep,  accustomed  to  say  "baa"  and  to  follow  the 
old  bell  wethers.  It  is  probable  that  any  party  organization 
having  control  of  the  election  and  governmental  machinery 
could  speedily,  if  it  chose,  put  the  proletariat  in  possession  of 
the  government  of  the  manufacturing  states,  such  as  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  Massachusetts  and  Illinois.  In  case  of  gov- 
ernment ownership  of  transportation  and  intelligence  utilities, 
the  party  in  power  might,  in  aid  of  this  purpose,  get  control 
of  a  couple  of  million  additional  votes.  After  that,  who  knows 
what  next?  It  might  then  be  too  late  for  us  to  throw  off  the 
yoke;  like  the  French  of  1793,  like  the  Russians  of  today,  we 
might  find  ourselves  a  subjugated  people.  People  say  that  in 
the  end  truth  and  justice  must  triumph;  but  that  phrase  "in 
the  end"  is  portentous.  The  end  of  Bolshevism  might  be  de- 
layed for  a  half  century  of  wasteful  struggle,  wherein  the 


428      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

immediate  generation  and  most  of  its  belongings  would  prob- 
ably perish. 

To  successfully  meet  the  Bolshevist  attacks  whether  made 
by  propaganda  or  violence,  we  should  thoroughly  cleanse  our 
politics  and  restore  our  government  to  its  original  high  place  in 
the  respect  of  the  people.  It  was  said  in  our  first  chapter 
that  the  American  democracy  has  not  fulfilled  its  early  prom- 
ise of  creating  a  government  popular  in  the  sense  of  good  and 
economical  public  service.  Had  the  political  record  of  the  first 
forty  years  of  the  Republic  been  equalled  by  that  of  the  fol- 
lowing ninety,  it  is  possible  that  our  example  would  have  saved 
the  world  from  organized  Bolshevism.  We  may  choose  to 
shut  our  eyes  to  the  story  of  corruption  and  inefficiency  out- 
lined in  the  foregoing  pages,  but  the  rest  of  the  world  has  not 
failed  to  read  it  and  to  comment  on  it.  Large  numbers  of  the 
discontented  classes  of  Europe  have  interpreted  that  dismal 
chronicle  to  mean  the  failure  of  democracy,  and  have  turned 
to  red  radicalism.  It  is  notorious  that  the  principal  leaders  of 
Russian  Bolshevism  are  native  Russians  who  have  lived  in 
America;  and  the  accounts  of  the  falling  off  of  democracy 
within  this  country,  which  were  carried  back  home  by  them, 
and  by  thousands  of  their  countrymen  here,  no  doubt  featured 
largely  in  the  spread  of  Bolshevik  doctrines  there.  They  had 
heard  the  praises  of  American  democracy  trumpeted  abroad, 
and  they  came  here  to  see  and  take  part  in  its  perfect  work; 
they  found  the  country  in  the  hands  of  sordid,  corrupt  and  in- 
efficient politicians,  and  they  turned  from  democracy  in  despair. 
Seeing  the  misuse  of  money  in  our  politics,  they  decided  that 
the  power  of  money  should  be  abolished  altogether.  Like  our- 
selves, they  overlooked  completely  the  fact  that  the  real  cause 
of  the  diseased  condition  of  our  American  political  life  is  not 
the  purchasing  power  of  money,  but  the  existence  of  a  pur- 
chasable electorate.  Recently  a  man  wrote  to  a  New  York 
daily  paper,  urging  that  the  way  to  win  immigrants  to  love 
America,  was  to  teach  them  the  lessons  of  patriotism  found  in 
American  history.  This  patriotic  writer  only  thought  of  his- 


REMEDY   FOR   POPULAR   UNREST   AND   BOLSHEVISM       429 

tory  as  found  in  the  school  treatises,  and  utterly  ignored  the 
fact  that  these  immigrants  are  actually  learning  contemporary 
American  history  every  day  from  our  newspapers.  He  wanted 
them,  he  said,  to  be  told  of  Washington,  Franklin  and  Robert 
Morris.  But  the  immigrant  soon  learns  that  not  only  are 
those  great  men  dead,  but  that  their  successors  in  power  are 
and  are  likely  to  continue  to  be,  a  lot  of  ignorant,  greedy  and 
unscrupulous  modern  politicians.  As  well  tell  the  modern 
Greek  to  be  satisfied  with  political  rascality  there,  because  Aris- 
tides  the  Just  lived  in  Athens  thousands  of  years  ago. 

No  one  can  doubt  that  a  similar  feeling  of  political  disap- 
pointment with  the  workings  of  our  government,  of  hatred  and 
contempt  for  our  oligarchy  of  politicians,  of  want  of  faith  in 
the  honesty,  integrity,  ability  and  earnestness  of  those  in  power, 
is  largely  responsible  for  the  progress  of  American  socialism, 
for  other  organized  protests  against  the  democratic  system 
and  for  that  phenomenon  frequently  referred  to  as  "popular 
unrest." 

Elihu  Root  in  the  North  American  Review  for  December, 
1919,  refers  to  Roosevelt,  when  president  about  twelve  years 
ago,  as  recognizing  the  existence  of  this  popular  dissatisfaction, 
that  "a  steadily  certainly  growing  discontent  was  making  its 
"way  among  the  people  of  our  country"  and  that  millions  were 
"then  beginning  to  feel  that  our  free  institutions  were  failing." 
But  Roosevelt  was  too  much  of  a  politician  himself  to  dare  to 
touch  the  real  sore  spot,  or  to  propose  to  cut  out  the  cancer, 
and  neither  Root  nor  Roosevelt,  nor  any  other  noted  politician 
has  assigned  any  adequate  cause  for  the  unrest  of  these  times. 
The  fact  is  that  the  public  has  come  to  despise  in  its  heart  a 
political  system  in  which  weakness  and  rascality  are  so  promi- 
nent. Roosevelt  went  up  and  down,  says  Root,  making  fran- 
tic appeals  for  obedience  to  law.  The  American  people,  of 
whom  there  are  millions  just  as  honest  and  common-senseful 
as  Roosevelt,  know  that  the  law  must  be  obeyed  as  a  practical 
rule  of  business ;  but  they  refuse  to  implicitly  believe  in  the  wis- 
dom, honesty  or  sanctity  of  statutes  and  ordinances  promul- 


430      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

gated  by  an  oligarchy  of  place-hunting  politicians.  There  is 
no  substantial  difference  between  the  attitude  towards  this  oli- 
garchy taken  by  the  thrifty  honest  working  class  and  that  of 
the  honest  mercantile  or  professional  class;  they  are  all  dissatis- 
fied with  our  governmental  system  for  the  same  reason;  namely, 
because  it  is  morally  and  intellectually  unworthy  of  the  Ameri- 
can people.  Jealousy  of  great  fortunes  has  been  mentioned  as 
a  possible  cause  of  the  popular  discontent.  But  the  bulk  of 
the  American  people  are  not  so  meanly  and  stupidly  envious  as 
that  suggestion  would  imply.  They  are  no  more  inclined  to  envy 
a  man  his  honestly  acquired  wealth  than  his  superior  health, 
strength,  musical  talent  or  the  acquisition  of  a  foreign  language. 
The  honest  rich  live  plainly;  they  work  hard  and  they  give 
munificently  and  wisely;  they  are  not  in  power;  the  people 
know  it  and  would  much  prefer  them  to  the  ruling  horde  which 
now  afflicts  us.  Roosevelt  himself  was  in  the  eyes  of  the  masses 
a  rich  man,  but  he  was  very  popular  and  all  the  more  so 
because  he  was  known  to  be  pecuniarily  independent.  The 
cause  of  the  public  dissatisfaction  is  not  the  doings  of  the  rich, 
but  the  misdoings  of  the  grafting  politicians.  The  latter  go 
about  wondering  at  the  cause  of  what  they  call  "unrest,"  when 
they  themselves  are  that  cause.  The  intelligent  workers  of 
modest  incomes,  farmers,  mechanics,  traders,  professional 
men,  clerks,  etc.,  see  with  their  own  eyes  a  lot  of  ignorant,  sor- 
did knaves  obtain  undeserved  public  offices  and  honors  and 
graft  themselves  into  wealth,  and  they  partly  envy  and  com- 
pletely dislike  and  despise  the  whole  lot.  Thence  it  follows 
that  transactions  between  the  politicians  and  business  men  of 
all  kinds  become  distrusted  by  the  public,  who  are  ready  to 
suspect  all  railroad  and  other  corporations,  all  importing  and 
manufacturing  interests  which  are  affected  by  legislation  or 
governmental  action,  whether  tariff,  taxation,  rate  regulation 
or  otherwise,  of  bribery,  fraud  and  corruption  in  all  trans- 
actions with  government  or  wherein  government  officials  are 
concerned.  The  people  are  also  dissatisfied  because  the  office- 
holding  class  is  weak  and  lacking  in  dignity  and  firmness. 


REMEDY  FOR  POPULAR  UNREST  AND  BOLSHEVISM        431 

The  attitude  of  a  public  official  with  his  ear  to  the  ground  is 
low  and  brings  him  into  contempt.  The  public  finds  too 
much  smartness  and  cleverness  and  too  little  manly  pride  and 
directness  in  our  machine-made  rulers.  They  find  that  they 
lack  courage  to  do  affirmative  justice  with  due  speed;  that 
they  are  able  to  do  nothing  without  first  being  assured  of  a 
majority  at  their  backs.  Their  decisions  are  governed  not 
by  the  application  of  principles  but  by  a  process  of  additions 
and  subtractions;  they  are  not  leaders  of  the  people  but  fol- 
lowers of  the  rabble.  And  this  slavish  cowardice  has  been  in- 
creased since  the  votes  of  women  are  being  sought  by  new 
forms  of  pandering.  If  we  want  the  people  to  respect  and 
love  the  government  we  must  give  them  one  worthy  of  respect 
and  love.  To  ensure  the  loyalty  and  devotion  of  the  immi- 
grant as  well  as  of  the  native,  we  must  make  our  political  in- 
stitutions as  nearly  perfect  as  possible;  we  must  offer  for  the 
support  of  the  American  people  a  government  like  that  of 
the  Fathers;  pure,  patriotic  and  efficient,  one  that  can  com- 
mand respect  as  well  as  enforce  obedience. 

We  have  reaffirmed  our  belief  in  democracy  as  a  method 
of  government  and  have  asked  the  rest  of  the  world  to  accept 
it,  and  we  are  therefore  called  upon  to  point  to  a  method  for 
its  practical  operation.  The  only  method  heretofore  found 
practical,  the  only  one  we  are  prepared  to  offer,  is  representa- 
tive government.  Unless  that  system  can  be  made  to  work 
well  the  experiment  of  democracy  will  have  been  a  practical 
failure.  We  are  bound  to  see  to  it  that  this  does  not  happen, 
that  representative  government  be  made  a  working  success, 
that  it  operate  with  justice,  efficiency,  economy  and  humanity. 
That  it  has  not  heretofore  operated  here  or  in  any  part  of  the 
world  with  anything  near  perfect  satisfaction  is  admitted  by 
its  strongest  supporters.  The  friends  of  democracy  are  there- 
fore called  upon  to  correct  the  situation;  in  the  slang  of  the 
day,  "it  is  up  to  us  to  make  good."  This  is  a  part  of  the 
national  and  world  work  which  we  Americans  have  under- 
taken; it  is  a  continuation  of  the  enterprise  of  making  the 


432      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

world  "safe  for  democracy."  Should  it  fail  hereafter  it  will 
be  as  though  it  had  failed  in  the  German  war,  and  the  world 
would  be  left  to  Autocracy,  Socialism  and  Bolshevism  to  divide 
between  them.  It  is  the  claim  of  the  enemies  of  representa- 
tive democracy,  who  are  numerous,  and  many  of  them  very 
intelligent,  that  it  never  can  be  made  successful;  that  it  has 
failed  not  only  in  France,  Italy,  Spain  and  Greece  but  in 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States;  and  that  its  failure  is 
due  to  lack  of  quality  in  the  electorate,  that  is  to  say,  in  the 
mass  of  the  population.  And  these  critics  are  no  doubt  so  far 
right,  that  whatever  may  be  the  practical  shortcomings  of  the 
system  of  representative  government  they  are  due  to  that  very 
cause.  Therefore,  it  is  plainly  our  business  to  make  repre- 
sentative government  a  success  by  the  only  method  practicable 
or  possible,  namely,  by  a  reform,  elevation  and  purification  of 
the  electorate. 

Our  second  step  in  the  way  of  preparation  to  meet  the 
menace  of  Bolshevism  is  to  take  a  definite  stand  for  property 
rights,  based  upon  the  plain  doctrine  that  our  government  is 
designed  and  intended  to  protect  American  civilization  ex- 
pressed as  all  civilization  is  expressed,  in  terms  of  property. 
If  we  did  not  believe  that,  if  it  were  not  true,  then  we  might 
as  well  at  once  surrender  to  Bolshevism.  But  it  is  not  enough 
that  it  is  accepted  as  true  by  all  the  wise  and  thoughtful  among 
us.  To  meet  the  exigency  now  before  us  we  must  formulate 
that  doctrine,  proclaim  it,  make  a  creed  of  it,  and  teach  it 
to  our  children  and  to  the  ignorant.  We  cannot  expect  to  de- 
stroy Bolshevism  by  merely  using  strong  language  about  it. 
Its  strength  is  partly  due  to  its  courage  and  consistency.  To 
oppose  it  we  must  be  courageous  and  consistent.  We  must  meet 
the  attack  on  property  by  arming  property  with  weapons  of 
self-defense.  Political  attack  must  be  met  by  political  action. 
When  fundamentals  are  assailed  foundations  must  be  strength- 
ened. We  must  weave  property  rights  into  the  very  fabric  of 
our  political  life  and  make  them  an  essential  part  of  Ameri- 
canism. Seven-eighths  of  our  adult  men  are  owners  of  or  in- 


REMEDY  FOR  POPULAR  UNREST  AND   BOLSHEVISM         433 

terested  in  property.  They  should  take  steps  to  make  their 
rights  therein  absolutely  secure  by  creating  a  private  property 
electorate.  Universal  suffrage,  manhood  suffrage,  and  every 
other  similar  anti-social  heresy  should  be  expunged  from  our 
statute  books.  Manhood  suffrage  which  formerly  spelled 
merely  thievery  and  plundering,  now  spells  destruction.  And 
female  suffrage  is  even  worse,  a  plain,  palpable,  odious  and 
contemptible  humbug  and  abomination,  a  malignant  source 
of  peril.  The  fight  against  Bolshevism  can  only  be  conducted 
on  principles  which  exclude  from  the  ballot  box  every  form 
of  practical  inefficiency.  There  is  no  place  for  ignorance,  de- 
pendency, and  sentimentalism,  feminine  or  other,  in  an  effi- 
cient democracy. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

THE    CASE    is    URGENT;     THERE    SHOULD    BE    NO    DELAY 

WHATEVER    IN    ESTABLISHING    THIS    GOVERNMENT    UPON 
A    PROPERTY    BASIS. 

ANY  demand  for  a  qualified  suffrage  is  certain  to  be  met 
by  a  plea  for  delay.  The  temptation  to  postpone  action  is 
natural  and  springs  at  once  to  the  heart  of  almost  every  man 
whose  judgment  counsels  him  to  undertake  anything  new  and 
troublesome.  There  is,  too,  an  immense  party  interested  in 
maintaining  the  present  corrupt  regime;  including  the  politi- 
cians, office  holders,  political  heelers  and  featherhead  agitators, 
and  a  considerable  predatory  band  who  live  off  the  pickings 
and  stealings  of  politics.  In  opposing  any  effort  to  establish 
a  voters'  property  qualification  these  will  be  supported  by 
some  honest  believers  in  the  present  system,  as  there  are 
honest  believers  in  all  established  systems;  including  in  this 
case  multitudes  of  visionaries  and  the  inexperienced,  especially 
the  young.  Even  some  of  those  most  willing  to  admit  the  mis- 
chiefs attendant  upon  universal  suffrage  will  make  the  plea 
of  delay  for  delay's  sake;  the  plea  of  the  indolent,  the  inert, 
the  timid,  the  weak,  the  hesitating.  The  first  answer  to  this 
plea  is  that  the  importance  of  the  matter  will  not  admit  of 
delay.  The  health  of  the  nation  is  involved,  and  with  a  nation 
as  with  a  man  the  question  of  health  is  one  of  life  itself.  When 
the  body  is  ill  and  suffering  a  deadly  and  poisonous  infection 
not  an  hour's  delay  should  be  tolerated  in  applying  the  neces- 
sary corrective.  Who  can  say  how  soon  the  man  or  the  nation 
may  have  to  meet  an  attack  that  will  strain  his  or  its  strength 
to  the  very  utmost?  Next,  it  is  to  be  realized  that  there  is 
no  proposal  of  an  alternative  remedy;  and  no  delay  therefore 

434 


THE  CASE  IS   URGENT  435 

is  needed  for  the  purpose  of  choice.  No  writer  or  publicist  so 
much  as  suggests  any  other  different  medicine  or  treatment, 
nor  is  it  possible  to  do  so.  The  cause  of  the  mischief  is  unlim- 
ited suffrage,  and  nothing  but  the  removal  of  the  cause  will 
avail.  There  remains  to  be  considered  the  appeal  of  those 
who  say  "leave  it  to  time"  to  improve  the  situation.  If  there 
be  those  who  really  expect  relief  in  this  matter  from  the  pas- 
sage of  time  and  from  the  changes  that  time  unaided  may 
bring,  they  are  much  mistaken.  The  same  causes  which  have 
heretofore  produced  the  mischiefs  complained  of  are  still  opera- 
tive and  will  continue  to  operate;  they  include  the  power  of 
organization,  human  cupidity,  and  the  existence  of  a  control- 
lable class  of  voters.  The  first  two  of  these  are  permanent  and 
continuous  forces;  the  latter  is  what  we  propose  to  abolish. 
The  political  oligarchies  never  were  as  strong  as  they  are  to- 
day; the  dearth  of  great  and  good  men  in  political  life  was 
never  so  great  as  now;  all  the  mischiefs  referred  to  in  this 
volume  are  in  full  blast,  if  not  in  one  place  then  in  another. 
One  looks  in  vain  into  newspapers,  books  or  magazines,  one 
listens  in  vain  to  political  speeches  or  private  talks  for  any 
definite  promise  or  even  suggestion  of  relief  from  any  quarter. 
The  general  attitude  seems  to  be  that  nothing  can  be  done  to 
improve  the  situation.  Each  reader  of  this  book  is  therefore 
warned  that  it  is  for  him  or  some  one  like  him  to  make  the 
start.  This  book  is  an  offering  to  the  cause;  who  will  follow 
it  up  by  action? 

The  professional  reformers  dare  not  attack  universal  suf- 
frage; they  are  nearly  all  office-seekers,  open  or  conceded. 
The  writers  on  American  politics  and  government  are  generally 
careful  to  ignore  the  evils  of  the  system,  so  they  cannot  pos- 
sibly urge  its  removal.  In  fact,  the  reader  needs  to  be  warned 
against  most  of  them  as  blind  guides;  the  more  apparently 
respectable  are  the  more  timid  and  time  serving;  unable  to 
entirely  overlook  the  grievous  condition  of  affairs,  they  care- 
fully avoid  criticism  offensive  to  popular  vanity  and  to  the 
powers  that  be;  they  flatter  us  by  pretending  to  ascribe 


436      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

the  actual  and  notorious  failure  of  our  democracy  to 
the  careless  generosity  of  our  national  character.  They 
prattle  of  American  good  nature,  national  optimism,  easy-going 
tolerance;  of  our  engrossment  in  business,  and  of  American 
"fatalism,"  all  of  which  nonsense  is  supposed  to  account  in  a 
manner  rather  to  our  credit  for  our  submission  to  plunder  and 
misrule.  There  are  other  explanations  equally  amusing.  We 
are  told  with  an  air  of  profundity  that  these  rascalities  have 
been  permitted  because  of  peculiar  circumstances;  from  1860 
to  1870  it  was  because  of  slavery  agitation  and  the  Civil  War; 
that  people  were  too  busy  agitating  and  fighting  to  watch  the 
thieves.  In  the  very  next  breath  we  are  told  that  in  the  Civil 
War  the  "moral  forces"  were  in  possession  of  the  nation.  For 
the  next  decade  the  excuse  is  that  we  were  immersed  in  great 
speculations  and  so  on.  But  these  explanations  really  explain 
nothing;  they  fail  to  explain  why  our  official  guardians  and 
rulers  systematically  rob  us  whenever  we  are  too  busy  to 
watch  them,  nor  why  they  are  not  replaced  b)'  people  who  can 
be  trusted.  These  expounders  proclaim  that  the  people  need 
only  to  "arise  in  their  might"  and  the  corruption  of  three  gen- 
erations will  become  incorruption.  When  at  any  election  one 
political  ring  goes  out  and  another  comes  in  they  utter  childish 
blasts  of  triumph.  One  wonders,  inexperienced  as  some  of 
these  so  called  publicists  are,  whether  they  really  can  them- 
selves believe  such  rubbish.  After  the  explosion  of  some  su- 
perlative political  scandal  they  can  often  be  heard  telling  the 
public  that  all  will  come  right  by  and  by;  which  means  that 
we  have  only  to  continue  to  sit  patiently  and  let  ourselves  be 
fleeced  until  the  kind  fairies  bring  good  times.  We  are  sup- 
posed to  be  very  easily  sootheJ  and  perhaps  we  are.  Bryce, 
for  instance,  who  as  a  political  radical  has  been  trained  to 
give  ear  to  the  bellowing  of  the  vox  populi,  speaking  of  our 
rascal  legislators,  tells  us  reassuringly  that  "if  before  a  mis- 
chievous bill  passes,  its  opponents  can  get  the  attention  of  the 
people  fixed  upon  it,  its  chances  are  slight."  (Vol.  II,  p.  369.) 
As  though  one  should  say  to  a  merchant,  "Don't  worry  about 


THE   CASE   IS   URGENT  437 

your  clerk  robbing  you,  any  time  you  actually  catch  him 
stealing  he'll  stop;  he  won't  persist  in  that  particular  theft 
anyhow;  he'll  just  be  compelled  to  drop  that  and  wait  for  a 
chance  at  something  else."  From  all  which  it  appears  as  a 
result  of  all  these  discussions  that  no  one  pretends  to  see  any 
definite  prospect  of  substantial  improvement  or  alleviation.  In 
all  the  ten  thousand  pages  on  American  government  written 
by  a  score  of  authors,  domestic  and  foreign,  not  one  is  able 
to  say  that  we  have  an  honest,  decent  or  efficient  governmental 
system,  and  not  one  offers  any  definite  scheme  for  practical 
relief.  On  all  sides  we  are  told  that  there  is  little  to  do  but 
to  believe  and  hope. 

As  far  as  this  hope  can  be  said  to  refer  to  anything  specific 
or  to  be  more  than  mere  sighing  wishfulness  which  profiteth 
nothing,  it  is  founded  on  belief  in  the  educational  work  of 
the  schools  and  the  vague  notion  that  thereby  all  the  people 
will  some  time  become  so  good  and  so  well  informed  that  man- 
hood suffrage  will  be  pure,  safe  and  efficient.  This  hope  is 
all  moonshine.  The  mentally  deficient  and  the  ignorant  will 
always  be  with  us.  There  will  always  be  upper,  middle  and 
lower  classes  as  long  as  private  property  endures  and  free 
play  is  given  to  human  activities;  that  is  to  say  as  long  as 
our  American  civilization  prevails.  In  the  march  of  life  some 
will  always  be  in  the  front  and  some  hopelessly  in  the  rear. 
Faster  than  the  increase  of  the  information  of  the  common 
man  and  the  development  of  his  mentality  will  proceed  the 
growth  of  the  great  body  of  human  knowledge;  and  the 
greater  therefore  will  be  the  comparative  ignorance  of  the 
ordinary  citizen.  The  wealth,  education,  refinement,  mental 
power,  efficiency  and  achievement  of  the  gifted  will  always 
far  exceed  those  of  the  common  people;  and  the  distance  be- 
tween the  efficient  and  the  inefficient,  the  dullards  and  the 
intellectuals  will  probably  become  even  greater  and  greater 
as  time  goes  on.  Though  ordinary  information  will  become 
more  widespread,  the  science  of  government  as  well  as  other 
sciences  will  continue  year  by  year  in  the  future  as  in  the 


438      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

past  to  become  more  complicated;  and  more  and  more  as  the 
years  pass  it  will  be  found  essential  that  the  hands  which 
operate  the  machinery  of  state  shall  be  skilled  to  the  very 
utmost.  Meantime  envy,  prejudice,  cupidity,  neglect,  intol- 
erance and  imprudence  will  continue  to  be  human  qualities, 
pushing  men  downward  physically  and  morally;  disease  and 
misfortune  will  continue  to  do  their  work  in  the  world,  and  a 
century  from  now  it  will  be  more  dangerous  even  than  today 
to  trust  men  of  the  least  developed  or  more  unfortunate  classes 
to  select  competent  and  trustworthy  managers  of  the  business 
of  government.  The  future  as  far  as  can  now  be  seen  will 
not  of  itself  give  us  relief  from  our  present  misgovernment; 
the  action  of  our  own  hands  and  brains  must  be  invoked  for 
that  purpose.  Of  that  action  there  should  be  neither  delay 
nor  postponement.  Our  plight  needs  a  remedy  and  needs 
it  now. 


CHAPTER  XXXII 

CONCLUSION 

HERE,  in  the  last  chapter,  seems  to  be  an  appropriate  place 
to  anticipate  and  reply  to  a  few  prospective  objections. 

Objection  that  the  project  is  undemocratic.  This  assumes 
that  universal  suffrage  is  a  democratic  institution;  but  in 
practise  it  operates  to  the  contrary  as  has  already  been  shown. 
The  prospect  practically  offered  by  the  property  qualification 
project,  is  the  democratic  one  of  the  door  of  political  oppor- 
tunity opened  to  that  honest  ability  which  is  now  by  the  ma- 
chines and  rings  excluded  from  a  public  career.  So  much 
for  the  practical  test.  Looking  at  the  project  in  the  abstract, 
it  is  satisfying  to  the  democratic  mind,  whether  viewed  in  the 
light  of  high  principle,  of  idealism,  of  nature's  law,  or  of  demo- 
cratic policy.  It  recognizes  and  rewards  merit,  it  puts  a 
premium  on  industry  and  capacity,  and  thus  satisfies  a  prin- 
ciple. Its  ideal  is  noble;  it  is  that  of  the  creation  of  a  high 
grade  of  citizenship,  the  establishment  of  a  democracy  of 
virtue  and  talent.  It  conforms  to  nature's  law  by  preferring 
the  fittest;  by  creating  order  in  the  ranks  of  citizenship;  by 
putting  government  into  the  hands  of  those  whom  nature 
herself  has  selected  as  competent.  It  accords  with  demo- 
cratic policy  because  it  will  give  democracy  more  strength 
and  more  wisdom;  because  it  is  progressive,  and  calculated 
to  encourage  progress;  because  it  glorifies  citizenship  by  mak- 
ing it  a  token  of  distinction;  because  it  at  once  makes  its 
active  citizenship  select  by  excluding  the  unworthy,  and  at 
the  same  time,  open  and  free  to  all,  by  inviting  all  to  qualify 
to  exercise  it.  It  will  create  a  true  majority  rule;  for  the  new 
electorate  will  undoubtedly  constitute  a  great  majority  in 
numbers  of  the  men  of  the  country;  and  will  represent  prac- 

439 


44O      POPULAR   MISGOVERN MENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

tically  all  its  civilization,  education,  talent,  energy  and  ability. 
It  will  give  the  humble  his  due  which  is  opportunity  to  rise; 
he  is  entitled  to  no  more.  To  the  poor  man  of  capacity  the 
door  to  the  voting  booth  will  be  as  wide  open  as  the  free  high 
school  door  is  to  his  son;  the  entrance  in  either  case  is  for 
those  who  can  qualify  and  the  terms  are  the  same  for  all.  To 
admit  the  unqualified  would  not  benefit  them,  while  it  would 
harm  those  who  are  properly  inside.  Only  the  shiftless  and 
worthless  poor  are  permanently  excluded.  The  industrious 
thrifty  poor  man  is  only  postponed;  and  he  will  know  that 
when  he  does  enter  by  virtue  of  achievement,  he  will  possess 
something  worth  while,  something  of  value;  he  will  be  an 
active  citizen,  and  his  suffrage  will  not  be  offset  and  nullified 
by  the  purchased  vote  of  a  worthless  loafer. 

Objection  that  the  proposal  is  oppressive.  It  would  be  op- 
pressive if  it  were  arbitrary,  or  unreasonable,  or  personal;  but 
it  is  none  of  these.  It  is  a  greater  hardship  to  be  discharged 
from  a  job  than  to  be  prevented  from  voting  at  a  public  elec- 
tion; and  if  a  man  can  properly  be  discharged  for  incompe- 
tency,  he  can  certainly  be  deprived  of  his  vote  for  incapacity, 
under  a  rule  which  applies  to  all  under  similar  circumstances. 

The  objection  that  the  project  will  be  barren  of  results  is 
sure  to  be  made.  But  good  results  will  surely  issue  from  it 
unless  the  whole  conception  of  this  volume  is  a  mistake.  It 
was  within  the  purpose  of  some  of  the  master-minds  of  the  re- 
public's early  days  to  direct  the  nation  in  the  paths  of  true  and 
scientific  Federal  achievement.  The  far-reaching  plans  of 
Washington  and  John  Quincy  Adams  for  the  development  of 
mutually  interacting  national  systems  of  industrial,  trans- 
portational  and  educational  development  were  finally  defeated 
by  the  ignorant  and  tiger-like  rapacity  of  the  Jacksonian  man- 
hood suffrage  bands.  (Degradation  of  the  Democratic  Dog- 
ma; Brooks  Adams,  p.  13-62.)  But  those  noble  though 
aborted  schemes  at  least  serve  to  indicate  the  great  possibilities 
belonging  to  pure  and  scientific  government.  In  Fed- 
eral affairs  we  may  confidently  expect  a  return  to  the  pure 


CONCLUSION  441 

and  noble  traditions  of  the  old  Federal  government  of  the 
second  Adams  and  his  predecessors,  when  the  democratic  prin- 
ciple was  infused  with  the  aristocratic  passion  for  excellence; 
and  our  representatives  will  then  be  qualified  to  consider  and 
deal  with  national  questions  with  ability  and  intelligence,  and 
a  patriotism  such  as  has  not  been  in  political  operation  in  this 
country  for  ninety  years.  Some  of  the  direct  benefits 
of  the  reform  may  be  expected  to  appear  in  the 
most  striking  and  satisfactory  possible  manner,  in  the 
complete  reconstruction  of  our  state  legislatures,  and  our 
municipal  governments.  The  change  will  seem  almost  magical. 
The  creation  of  the  new  and  purified  electorate  will  at  one 
stroke  smash  the  machines,  and  dislodge  the  political  oligar- 
chies; the  standard  of  public  conscience  will  be  immediately 
elevated,  and  bribery  at  elections  will  almost  disappear.  We 
will  then  be  justified  in  expecting  to  elect  legislators  who 
can  be  trusted  to  legislate,  and  worthy  and  competent 
municipal  officials.  We  will  be  relieved  from  the  bur- 
den of  maintaining  watch  dog  societies  and  they  will 
disappear  together  with  the  daily  political  scandals  which 
brought  them  into  being.  In  a  word,  we  will  be  able  to  do 
for  the  body  politic  that  which  is  done  in  every  decent  business 
corporation  in  the  land;  find  and  employ  men,  honest  and 
competent,  for  the  work  assigned  to  them.  The  prospect  is 
alluring;  one  is  tempted  to  dwell  on  the  fine  possibilities  were 
each  of  our  forty-eight  state  legislatures  composed  of  the 
first  men  in  each  state  in  probity,  experience  and  political  in- 
telligence. There  has  not  in  our  day  been  much  really  good 
government  in  the  world.  One  would  like  to  see  our  first-rate 
American  men,  of  the  type  and  class  who  have  developed  our 
industrial  and  transportation  systems,  get  a  fair  opportunity 
to  show  the  world  what  can  be  done,  not  only  in  progressive 
and  enlightened  domestic  legislation,  but  also  in  pure  and  effi- 
cient administration  of  public  affairs.  Dignified  and  purified 
elections;  advanced  and  just  legislation;  improved  and  honest 
administration;  a  justified  and  scientific  democracy;  such  if 


442       POPULAR    MISGOVERNMENT   IN    THE   UNITED    STATES 

not  fully  within  the  promise  of  the  proposed  reform  are  within 
the  possibilities  for  which  by  appeal  to  the  new  electorate  we 
will  be  encouraged  to  work  with  a  fair  hope  of  success. 

Objection  that  the  new  system  will  not  accomplish  this  or 
that  desirable  thing.  Of  course,  no  one  will  claim  that  it  will 
bring  about  everything  humanly  possible  in  the  way  of  po- 
litical improvement.  No  one  can  doubt  that  even  after  a  puri- 
fication of  the  electorate  there  will  remain  many  evils  in 
politics  and  much  still  to  be  done  to  improve  our  governmental 
system.  There  will  remain,  for  instance,  the  problem  of  fur- 
nishing the  electorate  with  the  facts  concerning  public  meas- 
ures, or  the  means  of  getting  them;  a  problem  heretofore  gen- 
erally ignored.  Walter  Lippman  in  a  very  able  article  in  a 
recent  number  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly  has  pointed  out  the 
great  importance  of  providing  the  public  with  real  political  in- 
formation, to  take  the  place  of  the  mess  of  misinformation  now 
daily  served  up  to  us  by  the  daily  press.  There  is  an  entirely 
new  field  to  be  covered  lying  in  that  direction.  Then  there 
is  the  question  of  how,  in  great  cities  especially,  the  voter  is 
to  be  made  acquainted  with  the  personality  and  qualifica- 
tions of  the  respective  candidates.  But  why  attempt  to 
specify,  when  the  fact  is  that  the  whole  region  of  scientific 
domestic  legislation  remains  almost  unexplored  and  unculti- 
vated. Under  our  machine  system  of  politics,  the  science  of 
legislation  has  been  absolutely  neglected  for  generations,  and 
the  whole  administrative  and  judicial  system  in  every  state 
in  the  Union  needs  revision.  But  the  primary,  the  essential 
reform  is  that  of  the  electorate.  We  must  begin  there,  because 
by  so  doing  we  cleanse  and  put  in  good  working  order  the  ma- 
chinery which  will  itself  undertake  what  else  remains  to  be 
done.  We  cannot  expect  wise  measures  to  be  furthered  or 
even  understood  by  an  ignorant  and  corrupt  electorate;  nor 
can  we  expect  a  sordid  political  oligarchy  to  enforce  them, 
even  though  enacted.  The  electorate  is  the  Alpha  and  Omega; 
.the  key  to  everything  in  politics  and  government. 

For  example,  the  proposed  elevation  of  the  franchise  would 


CONCLUSION  443 

have  the  effect  of  making  practicable  municipal  home  rule. 
We  are  all  familiar  with  the  evils  of  state  control  of  our  large 
cities;  and  yet  the  mischiefs  of  civic  home  rule  under  man- 
hood suffrage  are  even  greater.  At  present,  the  voters  of  the 
great  cities  are  necessarily  deprived  of  all  share  in  many  de- 
partments of  municipal  management;  which  are  put  in  the 
hands  of  state  boards  and  commissions  because  the  voters 
cannot  be  trusted.  The  establishment  of  a  competent  and  con- 
servative electorate  in  cities,  would  at  once  prepare  the  way 
for  the  granting  to  cities  of  local  self-government;  thus  ad- 
vancing the  cause  of  practical  democracy,  and  effecting  a  re- 
sult for  which  civic  reformers  have  labored  ineffectually  for 
years. 

Another  good  effect  will  be  the  elevation  of  the  political  tone 
of  the  country.  This  can  never  be  done  while  the  electorate 
remains  degraded.  It  is  inspiring  to  think  of  the  healthful 
stimulus  which  the  politics  of  the  nation  will  receive  when 
our  men  come  to  realize  more  and  more  the  honor  and  respon- 
sibility attached  to  the  office  of  active  citizen  of  the  republic. 
To  be  enrolled  on  the  list  of  voters  will  be  a  distinction  which 
will  be  valued  by  those  who  possess  it,  and  coveted  by  those 
who  do  not;  by  the  youth  just  entering  his  career;  by  the 
man  born  poor  who  is  saving  to  establish  a  home;  by  the 
reformed  spendthrift;  by  every  American  who  turns  from  a 
career  of  folly  to  the  path  of  wisdom  and  prudence.  Men  of 
substance,  education  and  judgment,  who  have  not  visited  the 
polls  for  years  will  find  it  worth  their  while  to  vote.  And 
every  voter  will  attend  with  a  feeling  that  his  vote  is  intended 
to  be  effective  for  good;  and  will  act  with  a  sense  of  responsi- 
bility entirely  inappropriate  now,  when  the  only  real  respon- 
sibility for  an  election  rests  with  the  boss  and  the  machine. 

And  yet,  beneficial  as  the  above  specified  effects  of  the  pro- 
posed measure  seem  likely  to  be,  still  in  the  mind  of  the  writer 
its  greatest,  its  transcendent  value  lies  not  in  any  of  them  nor  in 
their  totality  so  much  as  in  the  expectation  that  it  will  be  a 
decided  step  towards  the  solution  of  the  world's  problem 


444      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

of  the  creation  of  a  wise,  politic  and  progressive  democracy. 
The  elevation  of  the  electorate;  the  purification  of  elections; 
the  destruction  of  the  machines  and  the  rings;  the  abolition 
of  the  political  oligarchies;  the  better  government  of  cities; 
the  heightening  of  the  political  tone;  an  increased  efficiency 
in  public  affairs;  all  these  are  of  immense  consequence;  but 
beyond  and  over  all  is  the  importance  to  America  and  to  the 
world  of  putting  the  democratic  movement  firm  on  its  feet; 
on  the  right  road;  facing  the  better  day  and  prepared  to  do 
its  part  in  carrying  on  the  world's  politics.  This  it  is  at  present 
quite  unable  to  do  because  it  has  failed  to  widen  its  concep- 
tions with  the  enlargement  of  its  power  and  opportunities. 
The  ultimate,  the  supreme  power  in  the  state,  should  possess 
capacity  and  understanding.  Democracy  has  undertaken  to 
make  of  the  electorate  that  supreme  power.  To  do  this  suc- 
cessfully it  had  to  see  to  it  that  the  electorate  is  suffused  with 
intelligence,  and  it  has  failed  so  to  do.  Its  duty  in  that  regard 
was  partially  admitted  and  attempted  by  means  of  school 
education  of  the  young,  but  the  recognition  of  the  principle 
has  not  been  full  or  satisfying;  nor  have  the  means  adopted 
been  adequate.  The  world  is  unable  to  give  its  full  confidence 
to  the  democracy  of  to-day,  because  of  its  failure  to  fulfil  its 
implied  undertaking  to  produce  a  competent  electorate.  The 
great  objection  to  democracy  in  the  minds  of  modern  thinkers 
is,  that  originally  created  and  idealized  as  the  champion  of  in- 
dividual rights,  it  has  gone  no  further;  it  has  failed  to  provide 
for  capacity  and  efficiency,  or  to  recognize  its  duty  in  that 
direction.  On  the  contrary,  its  declared  policy  for  the  last 
century  has  been  in  the  direction  of  degrading  the  quality  of 
the  voting  mass  by  the  process  of  increasing  its  volume  from 
below.  If  democracy  is  to  be  the  future  governing  force,  it 
must  absolutely  and  unreservedly  commit  itself  to  the  prin- 
ciple of  a  thoroughly  competent  electorate;  to  be  established 
not  merely  by  preparation  of  the  fit,  but  by  rigorous  exclu- 
sion of  the  unfit.  The  chief  value  therefore  of  the  proposed 
electoral  reform  consists  in  its  inaugurating  a  complete  change 


CONCLUSION  445 

of  policy  in  this  vital  matter;  and  in  the  fact  that  it  will  sig- 
nify that  the  American  democracy  has  awakened  to  the 
understanding  of  this  necessity,  and  has  in  good  faith  under- 
taken the  duty  of  carrying  out  the  task  of  making  its  foun- 
dation sure  and  eternal. 

Politics  is  a  progressive  science  and  it  may  be  that  the  doc- 
trine of  a  qualified,  that  is  to  say,  a  competent  electorate  once 
accepted  for  general  purposes,  will  receive  hereafter  extended 
application.  We  cannot  put  a  limit  to  the  possibilities  of 
democratic  efficiency  to  be  attained  through  the  further  selec- 
tion and  elevation  of  the  voters.  While  the  plan  of  property 
qualification  is  apparently  the  only  one  at  present  practicable 
and  efficacious,  it  would  be  foolish  to  suppose  that  our  success- 
ors may  not  extend  the  application  of  the  principle  in  directions 
now  unthought  of.  For  instance,  in  addition  to  the  establish- 
ment of  means  for  furnishing  the  electorate  with  reliable  infor- 
mation as  Mr.  Lippman  has  so  sagaciously  suggested,  measures 
may  in  time  be  adopted  for  recourse  to  an  instructed  opinion  on 
proposals  for  official  action,  by  submitting  them  to  that  part 
of  the  electorate  whose  tastes  and  occupations  have  given  them 
special  light  on  the  subject  to  be  passed  upon.  Just  as  there  is 
an  instructed  minority  in  musical  matters,  so  there  are  always 
minorities  with  special  knowledge  of  educational  affairs, 
charities,  sanitation,  public  schools,  transportation,  finances, 
etc.  In  the  great  cities  these  groups  may  each  amount  to  tens 
of  thousands  of  individuals,  each  group  constituting  a  true  and 
enlightened  democracy  of  opinion  on  the  special  subjects  in 
which  its  members  have  interested  theselves.  In  a  great  city 
like  New  York,  for  instance:  one  can  imagine  a  set  of  voters 
qualified  on  banking  and  currency;  another  on  constitutional 
questions;  another  on  public  health,  and  so  on;  each  of  them 
containing  perhaps  ten  thousand  highly  qualified  persons,  ex- 
perts on  the  subject  referred  to;  whose  opinions  or  decisions 
might  be  given  as  called  for,  and  each  carry  with  it  a  certain 
weight,  or  have  a  certain  political  or  merely  informative  effect, 
as  might  be  provided;  and  so  as  new  circumstances  or  situa- 


446      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE  UNITED  STATES 

tions  arise,  as  changes  occur,  as  experiences  accumulate,  the 
principle  of  qualified  voting,  of  an  appeal  to  a  competent  and 
responsible  array  of  selected  public  opinion  may  be  applied  in 
many  new  ways,  to  the  advantage  of  the  community. 

Objection  that  the  requirement  of  a  qualification  may  be 
evaded.  One  of  the  criticisms  of  the  property  qualification 
rule  when  it  was  the  law  of  the  land,  was  that  it  was  frequently 
evaded  by  sham  property  transfers.  Every  statute  or  regula- 
tion is  likely  to  be  the  subject  of  schemes  of  evasion  which 
have  to  be  encountered  as  they  develop.  It  is  hardly 
worth  while  at  this  point  to  discuss  imaginary  difficulties 
which  may  occur  in  exceptional  cases  in  carrying  out 
the  reform.  It  will  certainly  never  be  adopted  until  it 
has  conquered  public  opinion;  in  which  case  means  will  readily 
be  found  to  enforce  it.  Sham  transfers  are  not  unknown  in 
the  business  world;  but  though  sometimes  troublesome,  they 
do  not  practically  interfere  with  the  volume  of  business  trans- 
actions. 

Objections  founded  on  certain  standards  of  qualification. 
The  writer  has  omitted  to  discuss  the  exact  amount,  character 
or  measure  of  property  to  be  named  in  the  qualification 
standard.  It  is  said  that  the  enforcement  of  a  rate-paying 
qualification  in  the  City  of  London,  by  excluding  from  the 
polls  paupers,  dependents  on  others,  idle  and  inefficient  work- 
ing men,  and  the  semi-criminal  and  criminal  classes,  effects  a 
reduction  of  about  twenty-five  per  cent  from  a  full  manhood 
suffrage  poll  list.  An  equivalent  purging  here,  would  com- 
pletely purify  our  voting  system.  But  here  in  this  country, 
the  standard  would  have  to  vary  according  to  local  conditions, 
and  to  the  judgment  of  the  different  legislative  bodies  having 
jurisdiction. 

As  to  the  possibility  of  the  success  of  a  movement  to  obtain 
the  enactment  of  a  proper  qualification  for  voters,  there  can  be 
no  doubt.  The  proposition  is  new  and  it  will  have  to  be  care- 
fully explained  and  earnestly  advocated;  but  it  will  be  adopted 


CONCLUSION  447 

and  put  in  force  just  as  soon  as  the  people  become  convinced 
of  its  justice  and  expediency;  and  not  before.  This  means  a 
lot  of  preparatory  and  educational  work,  and  therein  lies 
perhaps  a  chief  value  of  the  project.  Before  it  can  be  adopted, 
it  will  have  to  be  thoroughly  understood  and  believed  in;  the 
electorate  will  have  to  be  made  to  know  its  own  present  weak- 
ness and  corruption,  and  its  own  great  possibilities,  in  future 
power  and  purity.  In  short,  the  proper  consideration  of  a 
proposal  for  an  elevation  of  the  electorate,  will  of  itself  in- 
volve such  self-examination  and  bracing  up  of  standards,  as 
will  purify  the  political  atmosphere  even  before  its  acceptance 
by  the  legislatures  and  the  people. 

There  is  no  legal  difficulty  to  be  overcome,  no  Federal  con- 
stitutional provision  in  the  way;  and  the  reform  can  go  into 
effect  in  any  state,  upon  a  vote  of  its  people  changing  its  con- 
stitution. This  vote  can  be  obtained.  The  majority  of  the 
voters  in  every  state  are  property  holders ;  it  is  in  their  power 
to  assume  control  at  their  pleasure.  If  this  project  is  right,  it 
will  be  possible  to  convince  them  of  that  fact.  There  is  no 
reason  why  the  working  classes  should  oppose  it;  it  is  in  their 
interest;  most  of  them  are  family  men,  property  owners  and 
intelligent.  It  is  they  who  have  suffered  most  by  the  depreda- 
tions of  politicians.  They  would  be  dull  and  stupid  beyond 
all  that  has  ever  been  supposed,  to  fail  to  see  that  misgovern- 
ment  and  want  of  efficiency  are  their  greatest  enemies;  that 
excessive  taxation  eats  up  year  by  year  a  large  part  of  their 
surplus  product;  and  when  convinced  of  the  justice  and  ex- 
pediency of  the  measure,  these  serious  workers  will  find  means 
to  silence  the  senseless  clamor  for  the  vote,  should  there  be 
such  on  the  part  of  the  inferior  and  worthless  in  the  ranks  of 
labor.  Among  the  politicians  themselves,  no  doubt  there  are 
men  who  will  break  away  from  machine  tyranny  and  favor 
the  reform;  men  of  real  ability,  who  realize  that  working  in 
a  purer  atmosphere  they  would  achieve  more  real  distinction 
than  they  now  obtain;  men  who  inwardly  despise  the  things 
they  are  compelled  to  countenance  and  perform.  Much  form- 


448      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

less  prejudice  there  will  be  also  to  be  overcome  no  doubt;  but 
that  will  yield  to  explanation  and  to  reason. 

Thoughtful  men  everywhere  are  beginning  to  realize  the 
humbug  and  menace  of  manhood  suffrage.  Writing  in  the 
North  American  Review  for  March,  1920,  Hanford  Henderson 
says  of  universal  suffrage  that  "it  harms  even  those  whom 
"it  is  supposed  to  benefit.  To  give  every  man  and  woman  a 
"vote  and  to  declare  these  votes  equally  important  and  signifi- 
"cant  is  both  unsound  and  mischievous.  .  .  .  Universal  suf- 
frage is  a  characteristic  example  of  the  democratic  failure  in 
"discrimination.  ...  An  electorate  not  properly  qualified  is 
"an  ever  present  public  danger."  There  is  such  a  prevalent 
disgust  for  present  political  methods  that  any  well-planned 
scheme  of  relief  will  be  welcomed.  We  need  only  consider 
whether  the  measure  is  right;  that  once  made  clear  it  can  be 
carried.  To  doubt  that  is  to  doubt  the  possibility  of  a  reason- 
able democracy. 

Just  how  far  the  American  public  is  mentally  prepared  to 
seriously  consider  the  dominant  theories  of  this  work;  just 
how  soon,  if  ever,  these  theories  will  become  familiar  and 
popular  among  us,  it  is  impossible  to  judge.  It  may  be  that 
some  proofs  of  their  acceptance  will  speedily  follow  the  publi- 
cation of  this  volume;  it  may  be  that  years  or  even  generations 
will  pass  before  the  principles  herein  advocated  will  get  a 
hearing.  But  to  those  of  his  readers  be  they  ever  so  few,  who 
believe  that  the  things  here  written  down  are  true,  the  author 
would  say  in  the  words  with  which  this  volume  is  begun, 
written  by  Washington  on  the  eve  of  a  great  and  doubtful 
enterprise:  "Let  us  raise  a  standard  to  which  the  wise  and 
the  honest  can  repair;  the  event  is  in  the  hand  of  God." 


BRIEF    SKETCH    OF    WRITERS    REFERRED    TO 

ADAMS,  BROOKS,  American  lawyer  and  publicist;  author  of  "The  Law 
of  Civilization  and  Decay,"  and  other  works. 

ADAMS,  HENRY,  historian;  author  of  "History  of  the  United  States"; 
"Life  of  Albert  Gallatin,"  and  other  works. 

ALLEN,  WILLIAM  H.,  is  a  prominent  social  worker  and  author,  and 
is  director  of  the  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research  and  National 
Training  School  for  the  study  and  Administration  of  Public 
Business.  Author  of  "Woman's  Part  in  Government,"  referred 
to  in  this  volume. 

ALGER,  RUSSELL  A.,  Major  General  of  Volunteers  in  the  American 
Civil  War;  Governor  of  Michigan  and  Secretary  of  War  under 
President  McKinley. 

BAGEHOT,  WALTER,  distinguished  English  publicist  and  economist; 
member  of  the  English  Bar;  banker;  editor  of  the  Economist, 
and  active  for  many  years  in  business  and  politics.  Author  of 
"The  English  Constitution,"  "Lombard  Street,"  "Physics  and  Pol- 
itics," "Literary  Studies,"and  "Economic  Studies,"  in  the  two 
former  of  which  he  describes  the  practical  workings  of  the  British 
governmental  machine  and  the  London  money  market  respec- 
tively. The  extracts  herein  given  are  from  magazine  articles 
written  by  him. 

BENTON,  THOMAS  H.,  U.  S.  Senator  from  Wisconsin  from  1820 
to  1850;  afterwards  Member  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 
Author  of  "History  of  American  Government  for  Thirty  Years." 

BLUNTSCHLI,  JOHANN  K.  (1808-1881),  Swiss  jurist  and  politician; 
professor  of  constitutional  law  in  Munich;  author  of  a  number 
of  standard  works  on  Constitutional  and  International  Law. 

BREEN,  MATTHEW,  was  a  New  York  lawyer,  state  senator  and 
municipal  justice.  Author  of  "Thirty  Years  of  New  York  Poli- 
tics," referred  to  in  this  volume. 

BRYCE,  JAMES,  VISCOUNT,  English  historian  and  diplomat,  was 
elected  member  of  Parliament  in  1880.  Afterwards  Under-Secre- 
tary  of  State  for  Foreign  Affairs  and  President  of  the  Board  of 
Trade.  He  was  one  of  the  British  members  of  the  International 

449 


45O      POPULAR  MISGOVERNMENT  IN   THE  UNITED  STATES 

Tribunal  at  the  Hague;  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland  and  Ambassa- 
dor to  the  United  States.  His  book,  the  " American  Common- 
wealth," is  the  result  of  a  long  and  careful  study  of  American 
politics  made  on  the  spot,  is  much  used  as  a  source  and  text-book, 
and  is  referred  to  and  freely  quoted  in  this  volume. 

BURKE,  EDMUND,  illustrious  British  statesman,  orator,  parliamen- 
tarian and  writer. 

CLARK,  CHARLES  P.,  American  author  of  "The  Machine  Abolished," 
referred  to  in  this  volume. 

COMMONS,  JOHN  R.,  whose  work  entitled  "Proportional  Representa- 
tion" is  quoted  herein,  is  Director  of  the  American  Bureau  of 
Industrial  Research  and  Professor  of  Political  Economy  at  the 
University  of  Wisconsin.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Federal  Com- 
mission on  Industrial  Relations  in  1913-1915.  He  is  the  author 
of  a  number  of  books  dealing  with  the  industrial  problems  of  the 
United  States. 

CARTER,  JAMES  C,  New  York  lawyer;  counsel  for  the  U.  S.  Gov- 
ernment in  the  Alaska  arbitration  at  Paris;  author  of  "Law,  Its 
Origin,  Growth  and  Function." 

CALHOUN,  JOHN  C.,  American  lawyer  and  statesman;  Secretary  of 
War;  Vice  President  United  States;  Secretary  of  State;  United 
States  Senator  1832-1843  and  1845-1850;  author  of  two  posthu- 
mous works,  "Disquisition  on  Government"  and  "Discourse  on  the 
Constitution  and  Government  of  the  United  States." 

CURTIS,  GEORGE  WILLIAM,  New  York  editor,  public  speaker,  civil 
service  reformer  and  man  of  letters. 

DANA,  CHARLES  L.,  noted  New  York  physician,  lecturer  and  author. 

DAWSON,  EDGAR,  is  Professor  of  History  and  Political  Science  at 
Hunter  College.  He  is  a  joint  editor  of  "The  Practical  History 
of  the  World." 

EATON,  DORMAN  B.,  New  York  lawyer  and  Civil  Service  Reformer; 
Chairman  of  the  Civil  Service  Commission  1873-1875,  and  mem- 
ber 1883-1885. 

ESTABROOK,  HENRY  D.,  noted  American  lawyer. 

FIELD,  DAVID  DUDLEY,  New  York  lawyer;  prominent  legal  re- 
former; principal  author  of  New  York  Code  of  Civil  Procedure 
of  1848,  and  of  other  proposed  Codes  of  Law. 

FULLER,  ROBERT  H.,  American  newspaper  writer. 

FARRAND,  MAX,  Professor  of  History  at  Yale,  is  a  frequent  con- 
tributor to  American  Historical  Reviews.  He  is  the  author  of 


WRITERS   REFERRED   TO  451 

"Development  of  the  United  States"  quoted  from  in  this  vol- 
ume; and  also  "Legislation  of  Congress  for  the  Government  of 
the  Organized  Territories  of  the  United  States  (1789-1895)"; 
"Framing  of  the  Constitution";  and  "Records  of  the  Federal 
Convention  of  1787." 

FAGUET,  M.,  member  of  the  French  Academy;  author  of  "La  Culte 
d 'Incompetence,"  referred  to  in  this  volume  and  other  works. 

GARNER,  JAMES  W.,  is  Professor  of  Political  Science  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Illinois.  He  is  American  collaborator  for  the  "French 
Revue  Politique  et  Parlementaire"  and  contributor  of  more  than 
two  hundred  articles  on  political  and  legal  subjects  to  the  New  In- 
ternational Encyclopedia,  and  various  articles  in  the  Encyclopedia 
of  American  Government  and  the  Encyclopedic  Americaine.  He 
is  a  frequent  contributor  to  various  magazines. 

OILMAN,  CHARLOTTE  P.,  author,  lecturer,  magazine  writer.  Author 
of  "Women  and  Economics,"  herein  referred  to. 

GODKIN,  EDWIN  L.,  was  one  of  the  most  prominent  journalists  of 
the  United  States.  He  established  the  Nation  in  1865  and  was 
editor  of  the  New  York  Evening  Post  up  to  the  year  of  his  death 
in  1902.  He  was  the  author  of  a  "History  of  Hungary,"  "Re- 
flections and  Comments,"  "Problems  of  Democracy,"  and  "Un- 
foreseen Tendencies  of  Democracy."  The  latter  work,  quoted 
herein,  is  a  keen  analysis  and  study  of  the  forces  in  the  American 
political  system. 

HART,  ALBERT  B.,  may  be  said  to  be  the  dean  of  living  American 
historians.  He  is  Professor  of  Government  at  Harvard  Univer- 
sity. He  has  written  many  books  and  his  contribution  to  the 
study  and  interpretation  of  American  History  assumes  almost 
monumental  proportions.  He  was  president  of  the  American 
Historical  Association  in  1909,  and  was  appointed  Exchange 
Professor,  Harvard  to  Berlin,  in  1915. 

HYSLOP,  PROF.  JAMES  H.,  has  been  connected  with  Columbia  Uni- 
versity as  an  instructor  and  professor  of  logic,  philosophy,  ethics 
and  psychology.  He  organized  the  American  Institute  for  Sci- 
entific Research  and  became  editor  of  the  Proceedings  and  Jour- 
nal of  the  American  Society  for  Psychical  Research.  His  book 
on  "Democracy,"  published  in  1899,  is  extensively  quoted  in  this 
volume.  He  there  favors  a  qualification  for  voters  based  upon  the 
payment  of  an  income  tax. 

HUNT,  HENRY  T.,  is  a  prominent  lawyer  and  public  man.    He  was 


452      POPULAR   MISGOV'ERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

a  member  of  the  Ohio  Legislature  from  1906-1907  and  Mayor 
of  Cincinnati  from  1912-1914.  He  is  a  trustee  of  the  Cincinnati 
Southern  Railroad  which  is  owned  by  the  city  of  Cincinnati. 

IRELAND,  ALLEYNE,  British  and  American  traveler,  editor  and  essay- 
ist; American  university  lecturer. 

IVINS,  WILLIAM  M.,  prominent  New  York  lawyer  and  politician. 

KAHN,  OTTO  H.,  banker  and  publicist,  is  a  member  of  the  banking 
firm  of  Kuhn,  Loeb  and  Company,  a  director  of  the  Union  Pacific 
Railroad,  and  the  Morristown  Trust  Company.  He  is  a  profound 
student  of  and  writer  upon  financial  affairs. 

LECKY,  WILLIAM  E.  H.,  an  Irish  historian  and  publicist  who  died 
in  1903,  became  famous  at  the  age  of  twenty-seven  with  the  pub- 
lication of  his  "History  of  the  Rise  and  Influence  of  the  Spirit  of 
Rationalism."  He  was  a  member  of  Parliament  for  Dublin  in 
1895  and  re-elected  in  1900.  He  declined  the  offer  of  Regius 
professorship  of  History  at  Oxford  in  order  to  devote  himself  to 
public  life.  "Democracy  and  Liberty,"  published  in  1896,  and 
here  quoted  from,  is  used  as  a  reference  book  in  all  the  large 
universities  in  the  United  States. 

LEWIS,  SIR  GEORGE  CORNWALL,  British  lawyer,  editor  and  states- 
man; Chancellor  of  the  Exchecquer;  celebrated  author;  wrote 
(1849)  "Influence  of  Authority  on  Matters  of  Opinion"  here 
quoted,  and  other  learned  works. 

LEWIS,  LAWRENCE,  American  newspaper  and  magazine  writer. 

LIPPMAN,  WALTER,  American  author  and  publicist;  associate  editor 
of  New  Republic,  and  frequent  contributor  to  magazines. 

Low,  A.  MAURICE,  British  and  American  author  and  journalist. 

Moss,  FRANK,  New  York  lawyer;  former  president  Board  of  Po- 
lice, New  York  City;  author. 

MORSE,  JOHN  T.,  lawyer,  editor  and  author  of  several  biographies, 
including  "Life  of  John  Quincy  Adams,"  quoted  in  this  volume. 

MILL,  JOHN  STUART,  was  an  English  philosopher  and  economist  and 
one  of  the  greatest  English  prose  writers  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
Author  of  works  on  Logic,  Political  Economy  and  Utilitarianism; 
wrote  "Representative  Government,"  quoted  in  this  volume; 
"Liberty,"  "Subjection  of  Woman,"  etc.  He  served  in  Parliament 
for  several  years.  From  1835  to  1840  he  was  editor  and  part 
owner  of  the  London  Westminster  Review. 

MILLER,  J.  BLEECKER,  New  York  lawyer,  political  student  and 
writer;  author  of  "Trade  Organizations  in  Politics," 


WRITERS    REFERRED   TO  453 

MACCUNN,  JOHN,  is  Emeritus  Professor  of  Philosophy  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Liverpool,  where  he  taught  for  many  years.  He  is 
author  of  "The  Making  of  Character,"  "Six  Radical  Thinkers," 
"Ethics  of  Social  Work,"  "The  Political  Philosophy  of  Burke," 
and  "Ethics  of  Citizenship."  The  latter  work  is  quoted  in  this 
volume. 

MYERS,  GUSTAVUS,  author  of  "History  of  Tammany  Hall,"  herein 
referred  to  and  several  other  works  on  political  subjects. 

OSTROGORSKI,  MOISEI  iKOVOLEviTCH,  a  Russian  political  scientist 
educated  in  France,  has  a  profound  knowledge  and  understanding 
of  the  British  and  American  political  systems.  Ostrogorski  was 
a  member  of  the  First  Russian  Duma  or  Parliament.  Quotations 
in  this  volume  are  from  his  "Democracy  and  The  Party  System  in 
the  United  States." 

REINSCH,  PAUL  S.,  whose  well-known  work  on  "American  Legis- 
latures and  Legislative  Methods,"  is  extensively  quoted  in  this 
volume,  is  one  of  the  most  widely  read  of  American  political  sci- 
entists and  historians.  He  is  the  author  of  many  books  which 
have  been  translated  into  Japanese,  Chinese,  Spanish,  and  German, 
and  a  frequent  contributor  to  reviews,  historical  and  economic 
periodicals.  He  was  Professor  of  Political  Science  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Wisconsin  for  over  twelve  years.  He  was  Roosevelt 
Professor  at  the  Universities  of  Berlin  and  Leipzig  in  1911-1912. 
He  is  an  honorary  member  of  the  Faculty  of  the  University  of 
Chile,  and  a  member  of  the  National  Academy  of  Venezuela.  He 
was  United  States  delegate  to  the  Third  Pan-American  Conference 
at  Rio  de  Janeiro  in  1904  and  the  Fourth  Conference  at  Buenos 
Aires  in  1910,  and  United  States  minister  to  China. 

RHODES,  JAMES  F.,  is  a  prominent  historian  and  lecturer.  He  was 
president  of  the  American  Historical  Association,  and  was  awarded 
a  gold  medal  by  the  National  Institute  of  Arts  and  Letters  in 
1910  for  his  contributions  to  historical  literature.  In  1913  he 
delivered  lectures  on  the  American  Civil  War  at  Oxford  Univer- 
sity. Is  author  of  a  "History  of  the  United  States,"  herein 
quoted. 

ROOSEVELT,  THEODORE,  twice  President  of  the  United  States,  pub- 
licist, politician,  statesman  and  author  of  "Life  of  Benton,"  from 
which  this  book  quotes,  and  other  works. 

ROOT,  ELIHU,  distinguished  New  York  lawyer,  politician  and  pub- 


454      POPULAR   MISGOVERNMENT   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

licist;  has  been  United  States  Senator,  United  States  Secretary 
of  War,  and  United  States  Secretary  of  State. 

RUSKIN,  JOHN,  English  author,  art  critic  and  reformer;  made  a 
great  impression  on  the  literature  and  thought  of  the  latter  part 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  His  writings,  devoted  mainly  to  art, 
have  a  strong  ethical  tendency. 

REEMELIN,  CHARLES,  writer  and  lawyer;  former  member  of  the 
Ohio  Legislature;  student  of  political  subjects;  newspaper  editor 
and  writer;  author  of  several  works  on  politics,  including  "Ameri- 
can Politics"  (1881),  from  which  extracts  are  here  taken. 

STICKNEY,  ALBERT,  prominent  New  York  lawyer. 

STEFFENS,  LINCOLN,  American  editor,  writer  and  lecturer.  Author 
of  the  "Shame  of  the  Cities,"  and  other  works  and  frequent  con- 
tributor to  magazines. 

SIEVES,  EMMANUEL  JOSEPH,  French  Abbe  and  statesman  of  the 
Revolutionary  and  Napoleonic  era ;  member  of  the  States  General 
and  the  Convention;  member  of  the  Directorate  of  1799  and 
Senator  of  France. 

SCHURZ,  CARL,  distinguished  German  American;  came  to  America 
in  early  youth  and  became  an  American  writer,  soldier,  orator 
and  statesman;  was  United  States  Minister  to  Spain;  United 
States  Senator  from  Missouri  and  Secretary  of  the  Interior. 
Author  of  "Life  of  Henry  Clay,"  from  which  quotations  are  here 
made. 

SEA  WELL,  MOLLY  E.,  American  journalist  and  novelist;  author  of 
"The  Ladies'  Battle,"  a  work  written  in  opposition  to  female 
suffrage. 

SHAW,  ALBERT,  is  editor  of  the  American  Review  of  Reviews,  and 
author  of  several  widely  read  works  on  Municipal  Government, 
for  which  he  was  awarded  the  John  Marshall  prize  by  Johns  Hop- 
kins University  in  1895.  He  has  also  written  many  books  deal- 
ing with  different  phases  of  American  life  and  government,  and 
has  lectured  at  many  universities  and  colleges.  He  was  appointed 
professor  of  Political  Institutions  and  International  Law  at  Cor- 
nell University  in  1890,  but  declined.  He  is  a  trustee  of  the 
General  Education  Board  and  a  member  of  the  Bureau  of  Munici- 
pal Research.  Is  the  author  of  "Political  Problems,"  quoted  from 
in  this  volume. 

STIMSON,  HENRY  L.,  American  lawyer,  was  Secretary  of  War  under 
President  Taft  for  two  years. 


WRITERS   REFERRED   TO  455 

SUMNER,  HELEN  L.,  Assistant  Chief  of  the  Children's  Bureau  of 
the  Department  of  Labor  at  Washington.  Was  special  investiga- 
tor of  woman  suffrage  in  Colorado  for  the  New  York  Collegiate 
Equal  Suffrage  League  in  1916-1917.  She  is  the  author  of  many 
books  dealing  with  industrial  problems,  and  is  a  frequent  contribu- 
tor to  economic  and  other  publications.  She  published  a  book 
"Equal  Suffrage,"  from  which  a  quotation  is  made  in  this  volume. 

TOCQUEVILLE,  ALEXIS  HENRI  CHARLES  DE,  was  a  French  statesman 
and  political  philosopher  of  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. Visited  America  in  1831  and  wrote  his  monumental  work 
"De  la  democratic  in  Amerique,"  which  is  one  of  the  world's 
classics. 

TARBELL,  IDA  M.,  is  a  prominent  sociologist  and  publicist,  and  an 
associate  editor  of  the  American  Magazine.  She  is  author  of  "A 
Short  Life  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte,"  a  "Life  of  Lincoln,"  a  "His- 
tory of  the  Standard  Oil  Company,"  and  "The  Business  of  Being 
a  Woman,"  the  latter  quoted  in  this  book. 

VON  TREITSCHKE,  HEINRICH  (1834-1896),  publicist,  political  essay- 
ist; German  university  lecturer;  member  of  the  German  Reich- 
stag; the  most  brilliant  historian  of  the  Prussian  school. 

WEBSTER,  DANIEL,  orator  and  statesman;  was  member  of  United 
States  Senate  and  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States. 

WHITE,  ANDREW  D.,  was  an  American  educator,  scholar  and  diplo- 
mat. He  was  president  of  Cornell  University  from  1868  to  1885, 
minister  to  Germany  from  1879-1881  and  to  Russia  in  1892-4. 
From  1897  to  1902  he  was  Ambassador  to  Germany.  He  was 
chairman  of  the  American  delegation  to  the  Hague  Peace  Con- 
ference. He  is  the  author  of  several  books  dealing  with  historical 
studies. 

WOODBURN,  JAMES  A.,  is  Professor  of  American  History  at  Indiana 
University.  Has  contributed  articles  to  the  American  Year  Book, 
the  American  History  Review,  Indiana  Magazine  of  History,  En- 
cyclopedia Americanae,  and  the  Encyclopedia  of  American  Gov- 
ernment, and  is  the  author  of  several  political  works,  including 
"Political  Parties  and  Party  Problems,"  from  which  are  the  quo- 
tations made  in  this  volume. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
Thls  book  isWE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


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